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^cclegiagttcal 

THE  SYNODAL  DISCOURSES, 

AND 

EPISCOPAL   MANDATES, 

OF 

AIASSILLON  BISHOP    OF    CLERMONT, 
ON    THE 

PRINCIPAL  DUTIES  OF  THE  CLERGY. 

TRANSLATED 
By  the  Rev.  C.  H.  BOYLAN,  of  the  Royal  College  of  Maynootb. 


IN  TWO    VOLUMES. 


DUBLIN: 

PRINTED    FOR    THE    TRANSLATOR  : 

AND    PUBLISHED    BY    R.    MILLIKEN,    AND    R.    COYNE; 
BY    LONGMAN,   HURST,  REES,  ORME,  BROWN,  AND  GREEN 

BY  BOOKER;  AND  BY  KEATING  AND  BROWNE, 

LONDON. 

1825. 


[CEntereti  at  ©tutioncta'  t;aH.] 


DEDICATION. 


TO  THE 

RIGHT   REV.  JOHN   MACHALE,    D.  D. 

BISHOP    OF    MARONIA    IN    THRACE, 
COADJUTOR    OF    KILLALA, 

\ND     PROFESSOR    OF    DOGMATIC    THEOLOGY    IN     THE    ROYAL 
COLLEGE    OF    MAYNOOTH. 


MY  LORD, 

WHEN  I  reflect  that  it  is  not 
often  that  the  friendship  and  reputation  of  the 
Patron,  unite  in  challenging  the  homage  of  his 
literary  clients,  I  cannot  but  esteem  myself  for 
tunate  in  being  able  to  dedicate  my  first  pub 
lic  effort  in  the  cause  of  Religion,  to  one  whom 
I  have  known  and  esteemed  so  long,  and  who 
is  so  much  worthy  of  a  better  oifering.  These 


IV  DEDICATION. 

volumes,  my  Lord,  are  but  a  first-fruit  of  that 
generous  emulation,  which  your  talents  and  ex 
ample  have  so  largely  contributed  to  awaken 
in  our  college,  and  which  diffusing  itself  around, 
cannot  fail,  soon  to  greet  your  Lordship  in 
performances,  in  which  it  will  be  far  more  dis 
cernible  than  in  that  now  offered  to  the  Clergy 
of  these  countries,  under  the  protection  of 
your  name. 

Abilities  of  the    first   order  have  always  a- 
bounded  in  our  community;  but,  for  the  beau 
tiful  model  on    which    they   have  been  formed 
to   reflect  honor   on    Religion   and    Maynooth, 
they  are  in  a  high  degree  indebted  to  the  elo 
quent  lectures  and  writings  of  your  Lordship. 
It  is  to  us  a  subject  of  sincere  regret  that  the 
relations  which  have  hitherto  subsisted  between 
your  Lordship  and  our  establishment,  are  now 
about  to  cease ;  but  the  connexion  will  not  be 
wholly   severed.      Zeal    for   our  character    and 
fame  shall   still  continue  to  attach  you,  to  the 
scene  of   your  past  labor  and  reputation  :    re- 


DEDICATION.  V 

spect  for  exalted  worth,  and  gratitude  for  long 
and  distinguished  services,  shall  ever  bind  our 
affections  and  our  happiness,  to  the  destinies  of 
the  Professor  of  Dogmatic  Theology. 

Receive,  my  Lord,  this  humble  testimonial, 
as  an  assurance,  that  though  we  regret  your  de 
parture,  we  rejoice  in  the  early  honors  by  which 
the  Pontiff  and  the  voice  of  your  country,  have 
associated  you  to  one  of  the  most  venerable 
national  Hierarchies  on  earth ;  and  as  a  pledge, 
that  as  long  as  the  love  of  virtue  or  a  taste 
for  elegant  composition  shall  distinguish  our 
students,  your  name  shall  be  cherished  in 
Maynooth. 

I  remain,  My  Lord,  with  affectionate  respect, 
Your  Lordship's 

Most  attached  and 

Faithful  serv. 
Royal  College  Maynooth. 

May  16,  1825.  C.   H.    BOYLAN. 


TO  THE  READER. 


JOHN  BAPTIST  MASSILLON,  Bishop  of  Clcrmont,  and 
member  of  the  French  academy,  was  born  in  the 
year  1663,  and  died  in  1742.  In  the  graces  of 
composition  he  was  inferior  to  none  of  the  polish 
ed  writers,  who,  during  his  times,  adorned  the 
literature  of  France:  in  pulpit  oratory  he  had  but 
few  rivals  among  his  cotemporaries.  His  career 
of  public  instruction  was  brilliant  and  long.  The 
force  and  pathos  of  his  eloquence  were  felt  by  all. 
The  infidel  was  humbled  and  convinced  ;  the  great 
and  the  powerful  were  shamed  out  of  their  vices, 
the  licentious  were  converted  ;  the  hardened  were 
softened  into  repentance  ;  the  monarch's  bosom  was 
filled  with  the  terrors  of  the  judgment  to  come. 


viii 

The  Clergy  too,  were  improved  by  the  sweetness 
and  piety  of  this  illustrious  Prelate:  the  Discourses, 
of  which  a  full  and  correct  translation  now  ap 
pears,  for  the  first  time,  in  English,  were  exclu 
sively  devoted  to  their  instruction. 

The  first  volume,  as  far  as  page  425,  contains 
his  Spiritual  Conferences  in  the  seminary  of  Saint 
Magloire,  of  which  he  was  Director;  its  remain 
ing  part,  and  the  second,  those  which  he  address 
ed  during  his  episcopacy,  to  his  assembled  Clergy 
in  the  seminary  of  Clermont,  the  Discourses  which 
he  pronounced  annually  in  the  synod  of  his  diocess, 
and  the  Mandates  which  he  issued  from  time  to, 
time,  on  subjects  of  great  public  interest. 

The  object  of  all  those  Discourses  is  the  same— 
to  teach  the  ministers  of  religion  to  honour  their 
office  by  a  life  worthy  of  the  sanctity  and  excel 
lence  of  their  state,  and  to  aspire  to  be  useful,  by 
being  first  truly  virtuous.  He  is  no  frivolous  de- 
claimer,  who,  ignorant  of  the  precise  limits  of 
^r.uth,  seeks  to  surprise,  and  to  be  admired,  by 
urging  their  duties  beyond  the  strict  line  ;  whilst 


he  repels  his  auditory  by  hazarding  maxims  which 
are  neither  authorized  by  the  Gospel  nor  by  the 
example  of  the  Saints.  He  contents  himself  with 
enforcing  the  obligations  of  the  clergy,  such  as 
they  are  found  in  the  Holy  Scriptures,  in  the  ca 
nons  of  councils,  and  the  Doctors  of  the  church ; 
and  such  as  they  are  still  seen  in  the  lives  of  those 
exemplary  Pastors,  in  whom  sanctity,  as  well  as 
truth,  is  perpetuated  in  the  church  of  God.  He 
pushes  no  duty  beyond  its  proper  bounds,  but  nei 
ther  does  he  diminish  its  just  extent.  His  argu 
ments  are  drawn  from  the  purest  sources,  and 
Urged  with  an  unction  and  a  force  which  can  nei 
ther  be  evaded  nor  opposed.  lie  dissipates  every 
prejudice,  goes  to  the  source  of  every  vice,  un 
folds  the  hidden  springs  of  action,  and  leaves  ig 
norance  and  corruption  without  subterfuge.  He 
demonstrates  the  impiety  of  justifying  abuse,  by  the 
plea  of  its  antiquity  and  diffusion  :  it  remains  al 
ways  the  same  ;  it  can  change  its  nature  no  more 
than  vice  can  become  virtue;  and  whilst  truth  con 
tinues  unalterable,  abuse  in  every  shape,  however 
long  practiced  or  fondly  cherished,  must  be  abhor 


red  and  avoided  by  all,  who  will   not  become  the 
miserable  instruments  of  their  own  perdition. 

The  eloquence  of  the  Ecclesiastical  Conferences 
is  more  mild   and   placable,    but    not    less    ornate, 
than    that   of    his    other    sermons.     Massiliun    ad 
dresses  himself  to  the  Clergy,  as  to  persons   well 
instructed,   and   meekly   but    cogently   recals    them 
and   himself,   to   duties  which    they  already   know. 
He  rarely  recurs  to  those  burning  reproaches  and 
vehement  denunciations  which  befit  the  sacred  ora 
tor,   when   he  is  to   describe   the   horrors    and  pu 
nishments  of  crime,  or  rouse   the  lazy  sinner  from 
his  lethargy  :  he  details  in  simple  and  pathetic  lan 
guage  the  sad  and  fatal  consequences,  not  only  of 
the  open  disorder,  but  even  of  the  tepidity  or  ig 
norance,    of  the    Priest, — he    cannot    stand  or   fall 
alone ;   his    example  must  sanctify  or    destroy  ;  his 
firmness    and   zeal   must   save   thousands   of   souls, 
or   his  indifference  and   neglect   plunge  them   with 
himself  into  inevitable  ruin. 

The   discourses    which  may  be  called  Episcopal, 
because  they  were  delivered  when   the  author  was 


already  a  Bishop,  will  for  ever  remain  ft  mo&e}  of 
the  tender  and  parental  tone  in  which  a  Prelate 
should  address  his  Clergy.  In  tljem  he  betrayf  no 
unworthy  consciousness  of  his  high  dignity  j  no  vain 
pomplacency  in  his  own  authprity  a.ud  wisdom  5  W 
supercilious  condescension  for  inferior  rank  ;  no  ar? 
rogant  disregard  for  habits  and  opinion^  :  his  vyhpfc 
manner  bespeaks  kindness  and  love  ;  every  e*p?ef  T 
sion  breathes  the  tenderness  of  ft  father  fpF  his 
children  ;  his  power  and  station  are  forgotten  whilst 
fre  exhorts  his  colleagues  and  himself  fp  fidelity  an^ 
geal,  in  the  discharge  of  their  s,ubliine  and  fprniir 
dable  duties.  Nothing  can  be  more  pathetic,  morp 
touching,  or  more  truly  episcopal,  than  this  por 
tion  of  the  Conferences. 

Should  those  volumes  fall  into  the  hands  of  per 
sons  for  whose  use  they  are  not  immediately  in 
tended,  they  may  learn  from  them,  what  descrip 
tion  pf  labourers  they  should  beg  of  th$  Lord  of 
the  harvest,  for  the  work  of  the  gpspel.  They  will 
be  enabled  to  form  a  just  estimate  of  the  clerical 
character,  and  will  be  convinced  that  those  who 
have  foregone  the  pursuits  and  enjoyments  of  the 


xii 

world,  and  forsaken  their  father's  house,  for  the 
severe  virtues  and  laborious  duties  of  the  sanc 
tuary,  are  not  without  strong  claims  to  their  con 
fidence  and  respect.  On  perceiving  the  awful  obli 
gations  of  the  Priesthood,  they  must  feel  too,  that 
neither  flesh  nor  blood  should  give  pastors  to  the 
church,  and  must  abhor  those  guilty  parents  who 
ruin  the  everlasting  hopes  of  multitudes,  and  blast 
the  happiness  of  their  children  even  here,  by  pla 
cing  them  in  the  vineyard  of  the  Lord,  without  a 
marked  vocation  from  heaven.  At  a  moment  like 
the  present,  this  reflection  will  not  be  without  its, 
use. 

One  of  the  most  eminent  critics  of  sacred  elo 
quence  that  has  appeared  among  the  French,  * 
after  an  elaborate  discussion  of  the  various  pro 
ductions  of  Mass  ill  on,  assigns  the  highest  place 
to  the  Discourses  of  which  a  translation  is  offered 
to  the  Clergy  of  these  countries,  in  the  following 
volumes.  His  merits  are  indeed  of  the  first  order. 
No  writer  excels  him  in  the  sustained  elegance 

*  Cardinal  Mauri. 


Hill 


<and  beauty  of  his  style,  nor  in  the  tender  pathos 
which  moves  and  wins  the  virtuous  heart.  Men 
without  any  attachment  to  his  religion,  or  perhaps 
to  any  other,  have  not  hesitated  to  place  him  at  the 
head  of  the  prose-writers  of  France.  In  justness 
and  continuity  of  thought,  in  refined  delicacy  of 
taste,  in  beauty  and  variety  of  colouring,  in  the 
secret  harmony  of  his  periods,  in  all  the  charms 
of  language,  and  all  the  graces  of  elocution,  he  is 
inferior  to  no  orator  of  ancient  or  modern  times. 
In  him  there  is  no  sparkling  of  false  taste,  no 
affectation  of  feeling,  no  far-fetched  contrasts,  no 
subtle  epigrammatism  of  phrase,  no  antithetical 
fine-drawing,  no  empty  magnificence,  no  quaint 
ebullitions  of  fancy  :  all  is  rich,  noble,  varied,  na 
tural  and  simple.  There  is  labor  in  his  composi 
tions,  but  it  is  well  concealed:  there  is  repetition, 
but  without  prolixity,  and  all  the  art  which  the 
most  curious  perusal  can  discover  in  them,  serves 
but  to  render  them  the  more  graceful  and  natural. 
His  knowledge  of  the  human  heart,  his  sketches  of 
the  world,  his  delineations  of  morals  have  been 
rarely  surpassed.  His  illustrations  from  the  sa- 


xiv 

scriptures  are  frequent  and  appropriate.  He 
is  always  warm  and  persuasive,  sometimes  vehe 
ment  and  impassioned,  but  in  general,  his  zeal  is 
chastened  into  sobriety  by  the  severity  of  his  judg 
ment,  and  by  a  deep  sense  of  the  respect  which 
he  owed  to  his  subject.  The  magnificent  current  of 
his  ideas  is  like  the  "  ilumen  orationis"  of  Cicero— 
a  river  rolling  onward  its  broad,  deep  and  limpid 
Waters  in  tranquil  and  stately  majesty.  His  rare  and 
Various  talents  are  above  all  praise,  and  need  not 
the  humble  eulogy  of  his  translator.  His  object  was 
to  give  an  accurate  transcript  of  the  beautiful  ori 
ginal,  by  expressing  its  sentiments  in  English,  in 
Such  words  as  Massillon  would  have  used,  had  he 
written  in  our  language.  Whatever  his  industry 
and  pains  could  effect  in  this  delicate  and  dif 
ficult  task,  he  can  say  with  truth,  has  been  done. 
The  work  is  as  literal  as  the  peculiar  character  of 
the  two  idioms  would  admit-  He  has  used  no  li 
berty  with  his  original,  save  in  four  or  five  in 
stances,  where  a  slight  deviation  from  his  text 
seemed  necessary  to  suit  its  tenor  to  its  immediate 
object— the  instruction  of  the  clergy  of  those  coun- 


x? 

tries.     Itt  such  cases,  the  reader  is  always 

fised  of  the  alteration,  by  a  brief  notice  at  the  foot 

«f  the  page. 

Should  this  translation  be  honoured  with  the  no 
tice  of  those  learned  individuals  who  preside  over 
periodical  criticism,  it  may  be  hoped,  that  no  un 
kindly  rigor  will  be  exercised  on  its  humble  pages. 
Its  pretensions  do  not  rise  above  its  merits ;  its 
only  ambition  is  to  be  useful ;  and  should  that  end 
be  attained  by  fidelity  and  correctness,  the  trans 
lator's  task  is  fairly  performed,  and  the  judicious 
eritic  will  ftot  reproach  him  for  the  absence  of  nicer 
excellencies. 

The  translator  may  be  permitted  to  hope,  that 
these  volumes  will  be  found  to  advance  the  inte 
rests  of  Religion,  by  inflaming  the  zeal,  and  exalt 
ing  the  views,  of  its  ministers.  The  just  reputa 
tion  of  the  Irish  Clergy  cannot  suffer  from  this  at 
tempt  to  supply  them  with  new  facilities  for  medi 
tating  on  their  sacred  obligations,  amidst  the  dis 
traction  of  parochial  cares,  and  the  pressure  of  of 
ficial  duties.  Their  patience  and  firmness  have 


long  since  won  the  admiration  of  Europe :  theif 
detachment  from  the  interests  and  pursuits  of  the 
world,  the  lowliness  of  their  temporal  condition, 
and  their  austere  and  laborious  habits,  fit  them,  in 
no  ordinary  degree,  for  the  instruction  and  conso 
lation  to  be  derived  from  these  discourses.  The 
most  virtuous  too,  occasionally  need  advice  and  en 
couragement ;  the  tepid  must  be  warmed  into  fer 
vor;  the  slothful,  stimulated  to  action;  the  slum- 
bering,  awakened  from  their  torpor  ;  the  headstrong 
must  be  repressed,  the  confident  humbled,  the 
timid  supported ;  tlte  just  must  be  justified  still 
more,  and  the  holy  be  still  more  sanctified.  Whilst 
the  Clergy  are  men,  these  great  objects  will  re 
main  to  be  accomplished  ;  should  these  volumes 
contribute  to  effect  them,  the  translator  will  be 
more  than  rewarded. — Farewell. 


SUBSCRIBERS  NAMES. 


ROYAL  COLLEGE,  MAYNOOTIL 


Key.  Dr.  Crotty,  President, 

2  Copies, 
Montague,  V.  P. 
Dow  ley,  Dean, 
Kelly,  V.  Dt-an, 
Slevin,  Librarian,  &c. 
Cummins,  Bursar,  &c. 
Rt.  Her.  Dr.  MacIIale,  Profes- 

sor,  &c. 

Rer.  Dr.  Browne,  Professor,&c. 

-~         M'Na'.ly,  Profess.  &c. 

O'Donovan,  Prof.  &c, 

Carew,  Professor,  &c, 

— -         Loftus,  Professor,  &c. 

STUDENTS. 

Rer .  Mr.  Kennedy,  Ferns, 
- —          Roach,  Ferns, 
Furlong,  Ferns, 
Browne,  Tuam, 
Cannon,  Tuam, 
Brennan,  Elphin, 
Tighe,  Elphin, 
Renahan,  Cashel, 
—         O'Mailey,  Limerick, 


Rer.  Mr.  Cuddihy,  Kilkenny, 
Tully,  Tuam, 
OSullivan,  Cork, 
Ktiiy,  Waterford, 
O'Connor,  Cashel, 
Mohan,  Clogher, 
M'Gerahy,  Elphin, 
Tyrrel,  Kildare, 
Doran,  Kildare, 
Anglen,   Dublin, 
Harney,  Kilkenny, 
Furlong,  Ferns, 
M'Cormick,  Meath, 
Walsh,  Cork, 
Waters,  Armagh, 
Meighan,  Meath, 
Joyous,  Ardagh, 
Devereux,  Fernu, 
O'Kane,  Derry, 
Hayden,  Kildare, 
Tuomy,   Kerry, 
M'J>er,  Derry, 
Ronan,  Tuam, 
Rogers,  Cork, 
Glynn,  Tuam, 
Sheridan,  Tuam, 
Fitzraaurice,  Kerry, 


XV111 


SUBSCRIBERS    NAMES. 


Rer.  Mr. 

Verling,  Cloyne, 
Browne,  Kerry, 

Mr.  Delany,  Meath, 
O'Rorke,  Limerick, 

Master^on,  Meath, 

—  Ramsey,  Raphoe, 

Ryan,  Meath, 

—  Dunphy,  Ossory, 



Blake,  Meath, 

—  Gainor,  Meath, 



Tracey,  KUdare, 

—  Watson,  Derry, 



Nolan,  Meath, 

-  Kelly,  Raphoe, 



O'F'inn,  Waterford, 

—  O'Connor,  Kerry, 

._ 

Fulham,  Meath, 

—  Matthews,  Meath, 

-, 

Delahunty,  Waterford 

—  Lanigan,  Cashel, 

, 

Molony,  T.  Li  rm  rick, 

-  Knnis.  M<ath, 



Molony,  K.  Limerick, 

—  Clarke,  Meath, 



Lynch,  Limerick, 

—  O'Reardon,  Kerry, 

Dee,  Kerry, 

—  O'Brien,  Cloyne, 

i    - 

O'DohTty,  G.  Derry, 

—  Kearney,  Meath, 

— 

Murray,  Clogher, 
Prendergast,  Tnam, 

—  Traynor,  Clogher, 
—  0'  Flanagan,  Meath, 



Costello,  Dublin, 

—  Ilampston,   Kerry, 

— 

M'Dermott,  Dublin, 

—  O'Brien,  Limerick. 

— 

Leake,  Limerick, 

[It  is  necessary  to  observe,  that  in  the  following 
List,  the  Ecclesiastics  of  each  Diocess,  are  placed 
together;  and  that  had  a  preferable  arrangement  sug 
gested  itself  to  the  translator,  it  would  have  been 
followed.  Not  being  sufficiently  acquainted  with  the 
titles  to  precedence,  of  the  various  Diocesses,  Dig 
nitaries  and  Clergy  of  Ireland,  to  adjust  conflicting 
claims,  he  has,  in  cases  of  doubt,  generally  ranked 
them  in  the  order  in  which  their  respective  subscrip 
tions  reached  him.] 


SUBSCRIBERS    NAMES. 

Archdiocess  and  Province  of 

Rev.  Mr.  Sheridan,  P.  P.  Black- 
lion, 

Hrmasi)* 

—         Mullen,   P.   P.   Cour- 

town, 

Most  Rev.  Dr.  Curtis,  Abp. 

Leonard,   P.  P.  Old. 

Rev.  Mr.  O'Brien,  P.  P;   Dun. 

castlej 

gannonj 

Ferally,P.P.Kilbride, 

M'Kevitt,  P.  P.  Ter- 

—          Berrj  ,  P.  P.  Skreen, 

monfeckin, 

O'Rorke,  P.  P.  Rath- 

—         Bannon,  P.P.  Dunleer 

connel. 

Lennan,  P.  P.  Castle. 

Kearney,  P.  P.  River- 

bellingham, 

lodge,  Athlone, 

McKenna,P.P.Cooks- 

Curran,  P.  P.  Kiliucan 

town, 

—         Coghlan,  P.P.  Donore, 

Lochrau,  B.  Drogheda 

Leavy,  P.  P.  Furbots- 

O'Neill,  Dunleer, 

town, 

—         Dullaghan,   Castlebel- 

—         Burke,  P.  P.  Summer- 

lingham, 

hill, 

Pen  tony,  Ardee, 

Langan,  P.  P.  Arcath, 

—         Byrne,  P.  P.  Ready, 

—         Lynch,  P.P.  Frankford 

—          Weany,  P.  P.  Clonoe, 

Barry,  P.  P.  Clara, 

Devlin,P.  P.  Aughaloe, 

—         Masterson,  i*.  P.  Fore, 

O'Loghlin,P.P.Moate 

ME&TII. 

Fagan,P.P.Drumrainy 

Right  Rev.  Dr.  Plunkett, 

—         Cunningham,  P.  P.  Ra. 

ikon 

Right  Rev.  Dr.  Logan,  Coadj. 
Rev.  Dr.  Kearney,  Archdeacon, 
Kells, 

Ilclll  * 

Carolan,  P.  P.  Ratoath 
Shanley,  P.  P.  liartul- 

M'Cormick,  V.  G. 
Muilingar, 

lagh, 
O'Connor,  Academy, 

IV  a  v*i  n 

O'Reilly,   Prin.   Aca. 
demy,  Navan, 
O'Farrell,  P.  P.  Cas. 
tlepollard, 
Coffty,    P.  P.    Bally. 

Tnnrf* 

i.  i  ct  V  tt  1  1  , 

Conway,  Convent, 
Multiiarnham, 
O'Flynn,  Conv.  Moate 
Gargan,  Navan, 
Kelly,  Muilingar, 

I1IU1  \2 

—         O'Rafferty,P.  P.  Tul- 
10.  more 

Hanlon,  Duleek, 

—  -         1  ierse. 

Murray,  ?P.  P.  Clou- 
rnellon 

Nolan,  Tullamore, 
—     .    Kennedy,  Kells, 

Cantwell,'   P.  P.  Kil. 
beggan, 
Doyle,   (late)  V.  G. 
Clara, 

Malin,  Drumrainey, 
Sheridan,  Clonmellon? 
Dowling,  X)unboyne, 
Grennan,  Frankford, 

SUBSCRIBERS    NAMES, 


Rev.  Mr.  O'Connell,  Castlepol- 
lard, 

—  Magan,  Kilbcggan, 
Fitzgerald,  Kinnegad, 

—  Lynch,  Bohermeen, 
-r-         Murtagh,  Nobber, 

—  ByrnejP.P.Castletovvn 

CLOGHER. 

Right  Rev.  Dr.  Kernan, 
Right  Rev.  Dr.  Murphy,  (late) 
Rev.  Dr.  Bellew,  V.  G. 
Rev.  Mr.  Boylan,  P.P.  Mahera. 

cloon, 
McDermott,P.P.Emy- 


—  .         Moyiiagh,P.P.GldSS. 

lough, 

M'Mahon,  P.  P.  Ti- 
davnet, 

—  Bogue,P.P.  Lakeview, 

Clones. 

_         Sheil,P.P.Euniskillen, 
Finnegan,  P.  P.  Kil- 

lany, 
M'Mahon,  Monaghan, 

—  M'Ardle,  Monaghan, 
Brennan,  Fintona, 
Kelly,  Enuiskillen, 
Gordon,  Clogher, 
M'Donagh,  Clogher, 
Ryan,  Castleblaney, 

DERRY. 

Right  Rev.  Dr.  M'Loughlin, 
Rev.  Mr.  O'Flaherty,  P.  P. 

Malin, 
O'Loghlin,  Derry, 

—  M'Laughlin,lskaheen, 

—  Hegarty,  Derry, 
Bradley,  Carndonagh, 


Rev.  Mr.  M'Carron,  N.  T.  Li. 
mavady, 

—  Coneglan,  Dungiven, 
Dr.  M'Hugh,  Seminary, 

Derry, 

—  Mr.  Donnelly,  P.  P.  Cum, 

berclady, 

__         O'Connor,  P.  P.  Cam- 
donagh, 

ARDAGII. 

Right  Rev.  Dr.  M'Gauran, 
Rev.  Dr.  O'Kane,  Ballinahown, 

—  O'Beirne,  Drumsna, 
Rev.  Mr.  Farelly,  P.  P.  Ardagh, 

Doneho,    P.    P.    Edg. 

worthstown, 
O'Farrell,  P.  P.  Far- 

bane, 
O'Connel,Milane,  Ba. 

uagher, 

—  Sheridan,   Granard, 
M'Cormick,  Ballina. 

hown, 

—  Smyth,  Rathowen, 

KILMORE. 

Right  Rev.  Dr.  O'Reilly, 
Right  Rev.  Dr.  Magum  ,  Coadj. 
Rev.  Mr.  M'Gauran,  P.  P.  Car. 

rickallen, 
M'Gorrin,  P.  P.  Bal- 

lyconnell. 

M'Cabe,  P.  P.  Bally, 
haise, 

—  O'Reilly,  P.  P.  Lavy, 

—  O'Reilly,  P.P.  Rahen 
O'Reilly,  P.  P.   Balli- 

namore, 

DOWN  &  CONNOR. 

Right  Rev.  Dr.  Crolly, 
Rev.  Dr.  M'Mullan,  P.  P. 
Loughinisland, 


SUBSCRIBERS    NAMES, 


XXI 


Rev.  Mr.  M'Mullan,  P.  P. 
Glenavy, 
_         M'Caully,  P.  P.  Ran. 
da'stown, 
Fitzsimmons,  P.  P.  Bal 
ly  mena, 
—          Magreevy,  P.  P.  Kil- 
keel, 
M'Glew,  P.  P.  New. 
townards, 
M'Cann,  P.  P.  Ballin. 
derry, 
Hendron,  P.P.  Hanna, 
M^Garry,  Belfast, 

RAPHOE. 

Right  Rev.  Dr.  M'Gettigan, 
Rev.  Mr.  O'Gallagher,  P.  P. 
Raphoe, 

Feely,  
M'Gargle,  Lf  t.  kenny 
—         Hughston, 
O'Callaghan,P.P.  Do 
negal, 
—       O'Gallagher,  P.  P.  Ar. 
dara, 

DROMORE. 

Right.  Rev.  Dr.  O'Kelly, 
Rev.  Dr.  Gilmor,  P.  P.  Ross, 
trevor, 

Rev.  Dr.  Deignan,  P.  P.  St.  Ca. 
therine's, 
D'Arcey,  P.  P.  St. 
Audeon's, 
—         Lube,  P.  P.  St.  James's 
—         Kenrick.  P.  P.  St.  Ni 
cholas  Without, 
Armstrong,  P.  P.  St. 
Mark's, 
Rev.  Mr.  M'Donogh,       
Smyth, 

Eon  is, 

_         M'Cabe, 

Whnlnn 

Glynn,  St.  Mary's, 

Kelly, 

—         Salmon,  (late)  — 

Yore,  St.  Michael  and 
St.  John's, 
Holmes, 

Whifp 

—         Laphen, 
—         Flanagan,S-Catherine's 
—          Gahan,           
—         Dunne, 
—         Lalor, 
Walsh 

Walsh',  St.  Michan's 
Hyland,        

demy,  Newry, 
Rev.  Mr.  Polin,  P.  P.Clonallon. 

Archdiocess  and  Province  of 

Dublin, 

CITY    SUBSCRIBERS. 

Most  Rev.  Dr.  Murray,  Abp. 

TUv     Dr.  RiicKpll     V     fi. 

Ward,  St.  Nicholas 
Without, 

O'Hnrkp 

Purcell,  St.  Audeon's, 

Henry,  St.  Paul's. 

XXII 


SUBSCRIBERS    NAMES 


Rev.  Mr.  Lalor,  St.  Paul's, 

—  Gormley,    • 

—  Brady,  St.  James's, 

—  Canavan,     

—  Young,  N.William-st. 
Quin,  Dorset-street, 

—  Walsh,  Prior,  Dom. 

Conv.  Denmark-st. 

—  Gibbons,     • • 

—  O'Hanlon,Prior,Carm. 

Conv.  Clarendon-st. 

—  Gates, 

Dunne,  Prior,  Adam 

and  Eye, 

—  M'Carthy,Carm.Conv 

French-street, 
Fanning,  Prior,  Aug. 
Conv.  John's.lane. 

COUNTRY    SUBSCRIBERS. 

Very  Rev.  P.  Long,  P.  P.  Cion 
tarf, 

—  Kelly,  P.P.  Lusk, 
Brennan,  P.  P.  May 

nooth, 

Synnott,  P.  P.  Bally 
more  Eustace, 

—  Smyth,  P.  P.  Balbrig 

gan, 

—  Smyth,  P.   P.   Sandy 

ford, 
Calanan,  P.  P.  Cel- 

bridge, 
Campbell,  P.  P.  Sag. 

gard, 
Montague,  P.  P.  Fin. 

glass, 

—  Foster,  P.  P.  Skerries 
Roche,  P.P.  Kilquade 

—  Roche,P.  P.  Rathfarn 

hum, 
Rev.  Mr.  Murray,  Swords, 

—  Curran,  Celbridge, 


Rev.  Mr.  Stafford,  Lucan, 
Young,   Bray, 

—  M'Kenna,  Bray, 

—  Young,  Harold's.cross 

—  Grant,  Arklow, 
M'Can,  Glendalogh, 

—  Jenny n,  Dunlavin, 

FERNS. 


Right  Rev.  Dr.  Keating, 

Rev.  Mr.  French,  P.P.  Kilrush, 

—  Pettit,  P.  P.  Coolboy, 

—  Synnot,  P.  P.  Gorey, 
Murphy,  P.  P.  Litter, 

—  Furlong,  P.  P.  Franc. 

fort, 

Doyle,  P.  P.  Tima- 
healy, 

—  O'Neill,?.  P.  Ferns, 

—  Roe,  P.  P.  Tagoat, 

—  Murphy,  P.P.  Glynn, 

—  Murphy,  P.  P.  Toma- 

cork, 

—  Doyle,  P.  P.  Monbeg, 
Synnott,  P.  P.   Bally- 

breen, 

—  Walsh,  P.P.  Broadway 
O'Flaherty,  P.  P.  Fe- 

thard, 

—  Synnott,  Seminary, 

Wexford, 

—  Redmond,  River  Cha 

pel, 

O' Kennedy,  Gorey, 
Corish,  Gorey, 
Murphy,  Ferns, 
Dempsey,  CastK-bridge 
Walsh,  Wexford, 
DUIMK  ,  Old. Ross, 
Stafford,  Taghmon, 
Fanning,  Tintern, 
Ryan,  Newbawn, 
llore,  Killan, 


SUBSCRIBERS    NAMES. 


XXlll 


Rev.  Mr.  Devereux,  Button's  Pa 
rish, 
Walsh,  Newtownbarry 

—  Harper,  Bannow, 

Mitten,  Enniscorthy, 

Redmond, Ballymurrin 

—  Busher,  Kilrane, 

—  Whitty,  Enniscorthy, 

—  Heron,  Oulart. 

KILDARE. 

Right  Rev.  Dr.  Doyle, 
Rev.  Dr.  Dunne,  V.  G. 
Rev.  Mr.  Nowlan,  Prof,  of  Phi. 
losophy,Carlow  Col. 
Haly,  P.  P.  Kil<  ock, 

—  Brennan,P.P.  Kildare, 
Tyrrell,  P.  P.  Tiury- 

land, 
Dowling,P.P.Geashill 

—  CU»ury,  Tullow, 
Kavanagh,  Tullow, 
Cullen,  Kilcock, 

—  Kavanagh,  Baltinglass, 

—  Flanagan,  P.P.  Ballina 
O'Reilly, 

—  Colgan,  P.  P.  Eden. 

derry, 

Lai  or,  • 

Doyle,  P.  P.  Clonegall 

~         Higgins,  

Cummins,  P.P.  Myshal 

OSSORY. 

Rev.  Mr.  Cody,  ,P.  P.  Thomas. 

town, 

Hennery,  P.P.Callan, 
O'Gorman,  Kilkenny, 
Birch,  Thomastown, 
• —          Keating,  Cal'an, 
—        -  Sherman,  Kilkenny, 


Rev.  Mr.  Fitzpatnck,  P.  P. 

Slirough, 
—         Cody,  Kilkenny. 


Archdlocess  and  Province  of 


Most  Rev.  Dr.  Laflan,  Apb. 
Rev.  Dr.  Slattery,  P.  P.  Borris. 

oleigh, 
Rev.  Mr.  Fant,  P.  P.  Temple. 

more, 
Mullaly,  P.  P.  Lough. 

more, 
Meighan,  P.  P.  New 

Bermingham, 
Ryan,  P.  P.  Mullina. 

hone, 
Walsh,  P.  P.  Kilcum, 

min, 
Lafian,  P.  P.  Kilmes- 

tulla, 

O'Connor,  Thurles, 
Morris,  Borrisoleigh, 
Mulialy,  Loughmore, 
Howley,  Templemore, 
Lattan,  Loughmore, 

Mullany,     

Cleary,  Cluneen, 
Burke,  Mullinahone, 
—         O'Shaughnessy,   P.  P. 

Newport,  Tip. 

CLOYNE. 

Right  Rev.  Dr.  Coppinger, 
Rtv.  Mr.  Barry,  P.  P.  Charle. 

ville, 
Keilly,P.P.Mitchels. 

town. 

O'Neill,  P.  P.   Bally, 
clough, 


XXIV 


SUBSCRIBERS    NAMES. 


Rev.  Mr.  Lawton,  P.  P.  Kildor- 

rery, 

Croke,  Cove, 
Murphy,  Doneraile, 

Murphy,       

Beechinor,    •— — 
Sheehan,  Youghal, 
Russell,       • 

—  Hannigan,  Mitchelsu 

town. 

O'Reardon,  Killeah, 
Daly,  Conna, 
Cosgreve,  Middleton, 
O'Donogho,      •• 
Golden,  Clonmeen, 
Duane,  Mallow, 

—  Jonfs,  ' 

—  Ryan,  P.  P.  Mac  room, 
O'Keeffe,  P.  P.  Glan- 

taine, 

KILLALOE. 

Right  Rev.  Dr.  O'Shaughnessy, 
Right  Rev.  Dr.  M'Mahon,Coadj 
Very  Rev.  Mr.  Kenny,  P.  P. 

Tulla, 
Kenny,  P.  P.  Bearfield 

—  Duog.vn,  P.  P.  near 

Kilrush, 

—  Kennedy,  P.  P.  Lor- 

rah  £  Durrow, 
Maher,  P.  P.  Birr. 
Rev.  Mr.  Downes,  Corbally, 

—  Tynan,    Roscrea, 

LIMERICK. 

Rev.  Dr.  Hogan,  V.  G.  St.  Mi. 

chael's, 
Hogan,  V.G.St.  John's 

—  Hanrahan,  St.  Mary's, 
Rev.  Mr.  Walsh,   P.   P.   Tho- 

mond  Gate, 


Rev.  Mr.  Sheehy,  P.  P.  Parteens 

—  Walsh, P.P.  Hallinvana 
O'Regan,P.  P.  Drunu 

—  min, 

Coll,  P.  P.  Stone-hall, 

—  L<e, 

Downes,  St.  Michael's, 

Limerick, 

—  Molony, 

—  Tuohy,  Limerick, 
M'Carthy,  P.  P.  Bal. 

lingarry, 

—  Collins,  P.  P.  Effin, 
Furlong,   

—  O'Connor,  Rathkeale, 

CORK. 

Right  Rev.  Dr.  Murphy, 
Rev.  Dr.  Collins,  V.  G. 
Rev.  Mr.  Dore,  P.  P.  Calieragh, 
England,  P.  P.  Passage 

—  McCarthy,  Innishan- 

non, 

WATERFORD. 

Rev.  Dr.  Abraham,  P.  Seminary, 
Waterford,  2  Cop. 

O'Flynn,      

Flannery,  P.  P.  Clon. 

mell, 

Foran,  P.  P.  Lismore, 
Rev.  Mr.  Power,  P.  P.  Cahir, 
M'Can,   P.  P.  Kilgo. 

binet, 

Tobin,  P.  P.  Ardmore, 
O'Donnell,  P.  P.  Tal 
low, 

Br^nnan,  Clonmell, 
Baldwin,       • 
Costin,  Clogheen, 
D.  Power,  Wafcrford, 
J.  Condon.     • 
T-         M.   Whelan,  Carrick, 


SUBSCRIBERS    NAMES 


XXV 


Rev.  Mr.  Shanahan,  Ballyneil, 

Rev.  Mr.  Prendergast,P.P.  Clif- 

W.  Wall,  Tramore, 

den,  3  copies, 

—         Clancy,  Cappoquin, 

O'Grady,  P.  P.  Clare. 

—         Larkin,  Passage, 

morris, 

—         M.  Magrath,  Cahir, 

—         Gre^n,  P.   P.    Ballin. 

—         Purcell,  Lismore, 

robe, 

Burke,   Carriek-on, 

—         Waldron,  P.  P.  Ross, 

Suir, 

—          Burke,  Tuam, 

5 

—         Morris,  College,Tuam, 

KERRY. 

—         Sheridan,  Claremorris, 
Kelly,  Castlebar, 

Right  Rev.  Dr.  Egan, 
Right  Rev.  Dr.  Sughrue,  (late) 
Rev.  Dr.  Fitzgerald,   P.  P.  Ca- 

—         Prendergast,  A  theory, 
—         Burke,  P.  P.  Westport 
—         Dulfey, 

Wftldh 

heroiveen, 
Rev.  Mr.  Quinlon,  P.  P.  Drum. 

i  •  ••»                              VT    Cl  1  >II^ 

—        Gibbons,  P.  P.  Louis. 

tarif 

burgh* 

—         Fitzpatrick,P.P.  Mill. 

__        M'Hugh,          
—         Kelly,  P.  P.  Turlogh, 

street, 
O'Halleran,  P.  P.  Ir. 
rimore, 

—        M'Laughlin,      • 
Monaghan,P.P.  Shruel 

—  .         M'Naghton,  Listowel, 

CLONFERT. 

Barry,              

Moinaghan,  Caher, 
—          Foley,  Mill-street, 
—         Fitzgerald,    Caherci- 

Right  Rev.  Dr.  Coen,  Coadj. 
Rev.  Dr.  O'Kelly,  V.  G. 
Rev.  Mr.  O'Donnell,P.P.  Clon. 

veen, 

touskert, 

—          O'Suilivan,    
—         Mo.iarty,  P.  P.  Bally. 

M'Keigue,  P.  P.  Kil- 
lalaghten, 

bog. 

—         Fallen,  P.  P.  Ballina- 

—         Galvan,P.P.  Kilmeen, 

kill, 

Galvin,  Loughrea, 

Archdiocess  and  Province  qf 

Macklin,  

Larkin,  Ballydonellan, 

3Tuam* 

—         Duffy,  Eyrecourt, 

Most  Rev.  Dr.  Kelly,  Abp. 
Rev.  Dr.  Gibbons,  P.  P.  Castle. 

—         Cahalan,  Ballinakill. 
Sheil.    P.P.   Teena, 
—         Gannon,  Prior,  Conv. 

bar. 
M'flale,  P.  P.  Holly. 

Loughrea, 

mount. 

ELPHIN. 

Rev.  Mr.  Lyons,  P.  P.  Robin, 

Burke,  P.  P.  Newport, 

Right  Rev.  Dr.  Plunkett, 

Mayo, 

Right  Rev.  Dr.  Burke,  Coadj. 

XXVI 


SUBSCRIBERS    NAMES, 


Rev.  Dr.  Dolan,  V.  G. 

—  Byrne,  Dean, 

__         Brannelly,  P.P.  Boyle, 
Rev.  Mr.  Brady,  P.  P.  Lough. 
glynn, 

—  M'iNal'y,  P.  P.  Husky 
O'Connor,  P.P.  Baliy- 

more, 

—  Divine,  P.  P.  Croghan, 

—  Hanly,  P.P.  Kilbride, 

—  Fahy,  P.  P.  Elphin, 

—  Brown,  P.P.  Athlorie, 
Conroy,  P.   P.  Ard- 

carna, 

—  Gately,  P.  P.  French. 

park, 

Kennedy,  P.  P.  Augh. 
rim, 

—  Croghan,  P.P.  Cargan, 
M(Dermott,P.  P.Kil- 

glass, 

—  M'Keon,  P.  P.  Caltra, 

—  Keogh,  P.  P.  Kilmore. 
Madden,   P.   P.   Ros. 

common, 

—  O'Callaghan,P.P.  Bas- 

lik, 

Graham.  Boyle, 
Dillon,  St.  John's, 
Boyde,  Ardcarna,  2 

copies, 

Hanly,  Boyle, 
Brennan,  Strokestown, 
Bligh,  Kilglass, 

—  Sweeny,  Kilbride, 
M'Donough,  Lough- 

gtynn? 
Kirwan,  Elphin, 


KILLALA. 

Right  Rev.  Dr.  Waldron, 
Right  Rev.  Dr.  MacIIale,  Coadj. 


Rev.  Mr.  Mahony,  P.  P.  Balla. 
cikarey, 

Boland,  P.  P.  Kiliala, 

Con  way,  P.    P.  New- 

town, 

—  Hopkins,  P.  P.  Glan. 

hest, 
M'Nulty,  P.  P.  Erris, 

—  Hughes,  P.  P.  Cross. 

molina, 

M'Caulcy,  P.  P.  La- 
hertagh, 

—  Devany,  P.  P.  Ardagh, 
_          Mangan,  P.  P.  Ba,'ks, 

—  Doudecan,  P.  P.  Dru- 

rnard, 

—  Dev.ns.  P.  P    Kasky, 
Hughes,  P.  P.  KiUme, 

—  Judge,  P.  P.  iviiglass, 
Hopkins,  A.  P.  1:.  Kil- 

tean, 
Lavelle,P.P.Bal!ycroy 

Krris, 

Magee,  P.  P.  Lacken, 
Lyons,    Bal  nia, 
Hughes,  Kil  line, 

—  M'tJale,   Backs, 
Corcoran,   Ba'lina. 

—  Hart,  P.  P.  Doonfeeny 


ACHONRY. 

Right  Rev.  Dr.  M'Nicholas, 
Rev.  Dr.  Henry,  V.  G. 

Durcan,P.P.  Kmlifad, 
O'Kme,  P.P.  Kiiiurra 
Rev.  Mr.  Fi?zmaurice,  P.  P. 

Drum  rath, 
M'Nulty,  P.  P.  Tobor- 

curry, 
O'Ha-a,  i\  P.  RUma. 

cige, 
Henry,  Kilfree, 


SUBSCRIBERS   NAMES. 


XXVll 


Rev.  Mr.  Cooke,  Ballaghader- 

rine, 
McDonnell,      

KILFENORA  &  KIL- 
MACDUAGH. 

Right  Rev.  Dr.  French, 

Very  Rev.  P.  O'Loughlin,P.  P. 

Innistimond, 

Rev.  Mr.  Cullenan,  P.P.  Glenn. 
Geoghegan, P.  P.  New- 
quay, 
Haly,  P.  P.  Lisdun. 

varna, 

Mulliris,  P.  P.  Tuohe. 
ran, 


WARDENSHIP  OF 
GALWAY. 

Right  Rev.  Dr.French,  Warden, 
Very,  Rev.   Franc.  Xav.  Blake, 
Sen.  Vic.  Gal  way, 

—  Mooney,  Vic.  &  P.  P. 
_         Finn,  Vic.  &  P.  P. 

—  Daly,  Vic.  &  P.  P. 

_-         O'Donnell,Vic.&P.P. 
Carabrawn, 

—  Noon,  Vic.  &  P.  P. 

Oran, 
Mannion,  P.  P.  Clare, 

—  Lowther,  P.  P.  Rahone 

—  Lennan,P.  P.Spiddle, 

—  M'DermottjP.P.Moy. 

cullen, 
Rev.  Mr.  French,  Dom.  Convent 

—  O'Flinn,  Oran. 


SUBSCRIBERS    NAMES. 


LAY  SUBSCRIBERS. 

Right  Honorable  The  Earl  of  Fingal, 

Lord  Killeen, 

O'Connor  Don,    Belinagar, 
Gerald  Dease,  Esq.  Turbotstown, 
Colonel  M'Dermott,  Ramore, 
Daniel  O'Connell,  Esq.  Dublin, 
A.  S.  Hussey,  Esq.  Westown 

Sheil,  Esq.  Ballyshannon, 

Richard  Dease,  Esq.  Dublin,  2  Copies, 
John  Barry,  Esq.  Dublin. 

ABSENT  ECCLESIASTICS. 

Rev.  Dr.  Blake,  Rome, 

Langan,  Irish  College,    Paris, 
Rev.  Mr.  Jones,  Rome, 

—  Hearne,  Garstang,  England, 

—  Murphy,  Bradford.  


CONTENTS 

OF 

THE  FIRST  VOLUME. 


The  follmchig  Names  arrived  too  late  to  be  inserted  in 
the  preceding  List : 

Rev.  Dr.  Wall,  Dean,  Dublin, 

Rev.  Mr.  M'Guire,  P.  P.  Clooncaro,  Kilmore, 

—  Murphy,    P.   P.    Corrofin,  Killaloe, 

—  M£Inerny,  P.  P.  Feikle,  • 

—  Vaughan,  P.  P.  Scariff, 

—  Kennolly,  P.  P.  Killuran,  

—  Sheehy,  P.  P.  Clonruth, 

— .  M'Guane,  P.  P.  Mtn.Malbay,— 

--  Maher,  P.    P.   Holy-Cross,  Cashel, 

—  English.  P.  P.  Galbally.          • 


un  in*  estrangement  oj  ine  uiergy  jrom 

the  World.  -  48 

A  DISCOURSE 

On  the  Ambition  of  the  Clergy.    -  -  105 

A  DISCOURSE 
On  Communion.  -- -156 


SUBSCRIBERS    NAMES, 


LAY  SUBSCRIBERS. 

Right  Honorable  The  Earl  of  Fingal 

_ Lord  Kiileen, 

O'Connor  Don,    Belinagar, 
Gerald  Dease,  Esq.  Turbotstown, 
Colonel  M'Dermott,  Ramore, 
nan^i  O'r.rtrmpiL  Esq .  Dublin, 


CONTENTS 

OF 

THE  FIRST  VOLUME. 


PAGE. 

Dedication, -     iii 

Preface  to   the  Reader, vii 

Subscribers'  Names, xvii 

A   DISCOURSE 
On  the  Excellence  of  the  Priesthood.     -     -       1 

A  DISCOURSE 

On  tfo  Estrangement  of  the  Clergy  from 

the  World.  -  48 

A  DISCOURSE 

On  the  Ambition  of  the  Clergy.    -     -     -     -  105 

A  DISCOURSE 
On  Communion.  ---------156 


xxx  CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 

A  DISCOURSE 

On  the  Zeal  of  the  Pastors  of  the  Church 

against  Scandals. ^ 

A  DISCOURSE 

On  the  Vocation  to  the  Ecclesiastical  State.  252 

A  DISCOURSE 

On  the  Use  of  Ecclesiastical  Revenues.    -  307 

A  DISCOURSE 

On  the  manner  in  which  the  Clergy  should 

conduct  themselves  in  the  World.      -  373 

A  DISCOURSE 

On  the  Zeal  of  the  Clergy  for  the  Salvation 

of  Souls. -  425 

A  DISCOURSE 

On  the  necessity  and  importance  of  Retreat 

to  the  Clergy.  -    -    -     :     -     -     -     -  448 


CONTENTS.  XXXI 


PAGE. 

A  DISCOURSE 

On  the  Modesty  of  the  Clergy,          -     -     -  474 


A  DISCOURSE 

On  the  Jubilee.  -     -     -  -     -     -  499 

A  DISCOURSE 

On  the  good   Example  which  Pastors  are 

bound  to  give  their  Flocks.    -     -     -     -  532 

A  DISCOURSE 

Addressed  to  Children  before  Confirmation.  554 


ERRATA. 

[On  a  diligent  perusal,  the  errors  of  the  Press 
appeared  too  few  and  too  unimportant  to  require 
particular  enumeration.  It  is  hoped  thereiore,  that 
the  pious  and  learned  reader  will  pardon  and  cor 
rect  any  of  consequence,  should  such  be  found  to 
have  escaped  the  Translator's  notice.] 


A  DISCOURSE 


EXCELLENCE  OF  THE  PRIESTHOOD. 


Ecce  positus   est  hie  in  ruinam   et  in   resurrectio- 
nem  multorum  in  Israel. 

Behold  this   child  is  set  for  the  fall,    and  for   the 
resurrection  of  many  in  Israel. 

LUKE,  chap.  ii.  ver.  34. 


\VHAT,  think  you,  my  brethren,  is  the  reason 
why  the  just  Simeon  mingles  so  mournful  a 
prophecy,  with  the  august  mysteries,  which,  on 
this  occasion,  are  accomplished  in  the  temple? 
The  only  Son  of  the  Father  has  just  entered  it, 
for  the  first  time :  he  takes  possession  of  his 
new  priesthood,  and  exercises  the  first  public 
functions  of  it,  in  offering  himself  to  his  Father : 
instead  of  the  blood  of  goats  and  of  bulls,  he 
substitutes  the  oblation  of  his  own  body,  that  is 

B 


2  ON    THE    EXCELLENCE 

to  say,  the  victim  so  long  expected,   alone  ca 
pable  of  appeasing  the  anger  of  God,   and  of 
reconciling  him  with  man  :  a  high  priest  of  real 
blessings,*  he  already   proposes  to  himself,    to 
enter  by  his  own  blood  into  the  eternal   sanc 
tuary,  and  to  open   its  gates   to  his  brethren  : 
in  a  word,  he  renders  the  glory  of  this  second 
temple  far  more  illustrious  than  had  been  the 
glory  of    the   first;   and    yet   in    the   midst    of 
occurrences  so  joyous  to  the   human  race,  the 
holy  Simeon,  who,  after  beholding  them,   quits 
life  without  regret,  turns  to  Mary,  and  declares 
that  this  new  Pontiff,  who  was  to  be  the  light 
of   the  gentiles    and  the  glory    of    Israel,    is, 
notwithstanding,  set  up  for  the  destruction,   as 
well   as   for   the  salvation   of   many.      Passing 
over  the  other  reasons  of  this  mystery,  let  us 
confine  our  view  to  that  particular  truth  which 
regards  ourselves. 

It  appears  to  me  that  Jesus  Christ,  this  day, 
taking  public  possession  of  his  priesthood  in 
the  temple,  is  the  exact  figure  of  every  Priest 
when  he  has  received  the  sacred  unction,  and 
appears,  for  the  first  time,  in  the  church, 
clothed  with  that  awful  dignity.  And  it  is 

*Pontifex  futurorum  bonorum. —  llcbr.  c.  ix.  v.  11. 


OF   THE   PRIESTHOOD,  3 

on  this  solemn  occasion,  that  we  may  say  of 
him,,  Ecce  positus  est  hie  in  ruinam  et  in 
resurrectionem  multorum  in  Israel :  He  is  now 
established  a  minister  for  the  ruin  or  for  the 
salvation  of  many.  Upon  this  terrible  alterna 
tive,,  turns  the  destiny  of  a  Priest ;  and  it  is,  to 
the  letter,  true  of  each  one  of  you,,  that  you  will 
be  established,  or  are  already  so,  to  build  up 
or  to  destroy,  to  pluck  up  the  scandals  of  the 
field  of  the  Lord,  or  to  add  another  to  their 
number ;  to  save  or  to  kill ;  in  a  word,  to  be  a 
source  of  life  or  an  odor  of  death  among  men. 
Behold  the  subject  which  I  propose  to  treat 
in  this  discourse. 

FIRST    REFLECTION. 

What  idea  have  we,  my  brethren,  of  the  aw 
ful  ministry  to  which  we  aspire  ?  and  what  does 
the  choice  of  this  holy  state  present  to  the 
greater  part  of  those,  who  have  declared  for  it? 
Some  excluded  by  the  circumstances  of  their 
birth  from  the  prerogatives  and  the  temporal 
blessings  of  the  first-born ;  sorrowful,  perhaps, 
like  Esau  that  they  can  no  longer  pretend  to 
the  inheritance,  console  themselves  that  the 
Father  of  the  family  has  benedictions  of  more 
than  one  kind,  and  look  upon  an  engagement  in 


4  ON  THE   EXCELLENCE 

the  most  holy  and  sublime  of  all  conditions,  as 
the  lesser  portion  ;  as  a  step  which  they  can 
not  avoid ;  as  a  decency  which  even  the  world 
imposes  on  them;  as  a  consideration  which 
they  owe  to  their  name,  to  the  interests  of  their 
hou^e  or  to  themselves. 

Others  from  their  tender  youth,  familiarized 
to  the  hopes  of  elevation;  accustomed  by  the 
language  of  parents  and  of  friends,  to  view  the 
awful  burden  of  the  priesthood  only  under  the 
flattering  appearance  of  rank  and  dignity,  rush 
forward  to  it,  as  to  certain  wealth  and  distinction. 
Like  the  profane  Heliodorus  they  enter  into  the 
temple,  only  because  they  have  heard  that  it 
contained  immense  treasures;  not  reflecting  that 
they  should  find  there,  nothing  but  sacred  de 
posits,  destined  not  to  the  maintenance  of  their 
splendor  and  their  luxury,  but  to  the  support 
of  the  orphan  and  of  the  widow. 

Some  determined  by  the  tendencies  of  a  mild 
and  easy  temper,  solely  to  spare  themselves  the 
fatigues  and  perils  of  ambition,  to  escape  the 
cares  and  the  agitations  of  fortune,  throw  them 
selves  into  the  inheritance  of  Christ,  as  into  a 
haven  of  security,  where  they  promise   them 
selves  nothing  but  the  charms  of  peaceful  re 
pose;  the  happy  quiet  of  morals,  amiable  and 


OF  THE   PRIESTHOOD.  » 

free  from  all  perplexity  ;  a  condition  of  life,  in 
which  they  are  to  exist  only  for  themselves. 

There  are  even  some,  who,  born  with  great 
er  vivacity,  with  stronger  ambition  and  desires 
of  glory,  propose  to  themselves  in  the  church, 
distinguished  functions,  and  illustrious  employ 
ments;  and  already  promise  themselves  from 
their  talents,  not  the  salvation  of  their  peo 
ple,  but  the  admiration  and  applause  of  their 
country. 

Finally  there  are  others  who  undeceived  as  to 
the  pleasures,  and  disgusted  with  the  injustice, 
of  the  world  that  neglects  them ;  weary  even  of 
their  passions,  solely  on  account  of  the  void  and 
the  bitterness  which  follows  their  gratification; 
putting  off  the  ignominy  of  the  secular  habit, 
enter  into  the  ministry  as  into  a  more  certain 
way  of  salvation,  and  one  in  which  decency  itself 
will  shelter  them  against  those  occasions  of  re 
lapse  which  they  had  found  in  the  world ;  and 
thus  look  upon  this  exalted  and  divine  profes 
sion,  from  which  penitents  themselves  were  for 
merly  excluded,  and  which  was  open  to  inno 
cence  alone,  merely  as  a  reparation  for  past 
crime,  and  a  security  against  the  danger  and 
remorse  of  relapse.  Each  one  views  the  priest 
hood  only  in  reference  to  himself;  and,  as  if 


6  ON   THE   EXCELLENCE 

we  were  to  be  ministers  of  religion  only  for 
ourselves,  none  consider  it  a  state  that  brings 
many  obligations,  and  that  binds  up  our  des 
tiny  with  that  of  our  people. 

Yet,  whatever  may  be  our  views  on  entering 
into  holy  orders,  when  we  become  Priests,  we 
are  public  men  ;   we  contract  holy  and  essential 
relations  with  all  the  faithful;   we  are  as  the 
corner  stones  on  which  the  edifice  reposes,  and 
we  can  no  longer  remain  firm  without  support 
ing  those  around   us,  nor  yield   without  drag 
ging  them  with  us  in  our  fall  :   positus  cst  hie  in 
ruinam  et  in  rcsurrectionem  multomm  in  Israel. 
For,  first,  a  Priest  by  the  very  circumstance 
of  being  honoured  with  the  Christian  ministry, 
and  marked  with   its  august  character,    what 
ever  place   he   may   occupy  in   the   church,    is 
charged  with  the  interests  of  the  people  before 
God:  it  is  his  duty  to  bear,  every  day,  to  the 
foot  of  his  throne,  the  \vants  and  transgressions 
of  the  faithful.     Heaven,  as  it  were,  opens  and 
shuts,  only  at  his  word :    as  his  dignity  gives 
him  a  readier  access  to  the  presence  of  the  Lord, 
it  is  his  duty  to  solicit  him,    in   favor  of  his 
brethren  ;  to  move  him  to  compassion,  even  to 
force  him,  and  snatch  from  him  his  graces.   The 
princes  of  the  earth  wish  that  the  complaints 


0F   THE    PRIESTHOOD.  7 

and  the  necessities  of  their  people,  should  reach 
them  only  through  their  ministers,  and  that  their 
favors  and  graces  should  descend  and  be  con 
veyed  through  the  same  channel:  similar  is  the 
order  established  by  God  in  his  church;  and 
hence  the  canonical  prayers  which  she  enjoins 
as  a  public  and  daily  duty  to  every  minister  ; 
persuaded  that  the  prayers  of  the  clergy  are 
the  canals  of  public  graces,  and  that  they  are 
the  cries  which  the  Father  of  all  ever  hears 
and  respects,  on  account  of  the  regard  due  to 
the  dignity  and  eminence  of  their  character. 

Now,  a  Priest  who  is  worldly  and  unfaithful 
to  his  calling ;  a  Priest,  who,  every  day,  bear 
ing  his  tongue  even  into  heaven,  by  virtue  of 
the  mystic  benedictions  pronounced  at  the  altar, 
suffers  it,  on  quitting  the  holy  place,  to  crawl 
On  the  earth,  according  to  the  expression  of  the 
prophet,*  and  uses  it  only  in  vain,  idle,  and  pro 
fane  discourses;  a  Priest  whose  heart,  full  of 
the  world,  can  no  longer  relish  the  things  of 
God,  whose  imagination,  stained  by  a  thousand 
indecent  impressions,  can  no  longer  collect  it 
self  for  an  instant,  in  the  presence  of  the  Lord  ; 
a  Priest  who  scarcely  snatches  from  his  plea- 

*  Psalm  72,  v.  9. 


S  ON    THE    EXCELLENCE 

sures,  a  few  hurried  moments,  to  honour  God 
with  the  extremity  of  his  lips ;    who  suffers  the 
divine  and   burning"   expressions   of    the   royal 
penitent,,  to  drop  from  a  tongue,  cold,  languish 
ing  and  inattentive ;  who  discharges  himself  of 
a  duty  so  consoling,  and  of  itself  capable,,  says 
Saint  Ambrose,  of  softening  down  the  dangers, 
the  pains  and  solicitudes  of  his  functions,  who 
discharges  himself  of  it,    I   say,  as   of  an   op 
pressive  and  hateful  yoke ;  a  Priest  of  this  cha 
racter,  what  can  he  obtain  of  God,  whom   he 
knows  not,  and  whom  he  would  not  dare  to  so 
licit  in  favor  of  himself?  what  can  his  priest 
hood  profit  the  people  amongst  whom  he  lives, 
or  over  whom  he  has  been  established  ?  In  what 
can  the  church  perceive,  that  in  him  she  has  a 
spouse,   a  consoler,  a  defender,    a  mediator,   a 
guardian  of  her  faith  and  of  her  sanctity  ?  for 
these  are  the  august  titles  which  we  share  with 
Jesus  Christ.     But  I  will  go  yet  farther  :    is  he 
not  guilty,  before  God,  of  all  the  graces  which 
he  fails  to  draw  down  upon  his  brethren,  and 
which  the  order  of  providence  had  attached  to 
his  prayers  and  his  sighs  ?     Before  the  tribunal 
of  Jesus  Christ,  will  not  the  corruption  of  the 
flock,  the  disorders  of  his  friends  and  relatives, 
the  decay  of  the  faith  among  the  people ;  in  a 


OF   THE   PRIESTHOOD < 

word,  the  evils  and  the  scandals  that  afflict  the 
church,  be  esteemed  his  work  ?  What  do  I  say? 
On  the  terrible  day  of  vengeance.,  will  not  thou 
sands  of  weak  and  unfortunate  souls  reproach 
him,  that  had  his  piety  and  his  prayers  assisted 
their  good  desires,  they  would  have  long  since 
done  penance  in  sackcloth  and  ashes  ?  Had 
Moses,  contrary  to  the  command  of  the  Lord, 
allowed  his  weary  hands  to  fall,  and  ceased  to 
pray  on  the  mountain,  would  not  the  blood  of 
the  vanquished  Israelites  have  cried  to  heaven 
against  him  ;  and  guilty  of  the  victory  of  Ma- 
dian,  wfculd  he  not  have  been  justly  deemed  the 
murderer  of  his  brethren  ?  You  occupy  the 
place  of  a  pastor  agreeable  to  God,  who,  by  his 
cries  and  his  tears  would  have  opened  the  bosom 
of  the  divine  mercy  on  the  faithful ;  and  thus 
you  deprive  the  people  of  a  help  to  which  they 
had  a  right.  You  are  placed  in  the  sanctuary 
as  a  cloud,  at  the  same  time,  dark  and  without 
water,  which  not  only  yields  nothing  itself,  but 
which  prevents  the  influence  of  heaven  from 
falling  on  the  earth.  You  are  in  the  field  of 
the  Lord,  as  a  tree  that  is  dead  and  rooted  up, 
which  not  only  cumbers  the  earth  unprofitablv,, 
but  which  impedes  the  fruitful  warmth  of  the 
gun  from  passing  to  the  plants  which  it  covers 


10  ON   THE 

with  a  deadly  shade,  under  which  they  los£  all 
hope  of  health  and  increase. 

And  whence  think  you,  my  brethren,  proceed 
the  licentiousness  of  the  world,   the  decay  of 
morality,   the  relaxation  of  discipline,   the  de 
crease  of    faith  and  of  piety    in   the  church? 
whence  think  you,  do  they  proceed  ?  From  the 
tepidity  and  the  infidelity  of  her  pastors.     We 
are  always  the  first  cause  of  the  contempt  and 
forgetfulness  of  the  law  of  God  among  men  : 
the  evils  of  the  church  are,  almost  in  every  case, 
our  own  crimes.      It   is  because,   we   scarcely 
weep  any  longer  between  the   porch  and    the 
altar ;  it  is  because  our  vows,  tepid,  languish 
ing,    oftentimes    even   defiled,    are    no    longer 
powerful   enough    to   ascend   to  the   throne    of 
God,  and  open  the  bosom  of  his  mercies,    up 
on  the  faithful ;  it  is  because  the  church  wants 
true   and  fervent   mediators,    who    might,    like 
Moses,  speak  with  confidence  and  a  holy  free 
dom  to  the  Lord,  oppose  themselves  like  him  to 
the  vengeance  of  the  Almighty,  and  arrest,  as  if 
were,    his    arm   already   prepared   to   pour  out 
scourges,  and  execute  chastisements  on  his  peo 
ple.     Thus,  I  might  here  say,  in  a  sense  diffe 
rent  from  that  of  the  prophet,  O  Lord,   we  are 
become  like  to  the  corrupt  and  unfaithful  gen- 


OF   THE   PRIESTHOOD.  11 

tiles,  to  the  people  who  know  thee  not :  we  imi 
tate  their  excesses  and  their  wanderings  :  the 
worship  itself  amongst  us,  as  amongst  them,  has 
become  an  abuse,  a  superstition  or  a  scandal  ; 
thy  people  bear  no  longer  any  mark  by  which 
they  can  be  distinguished  from  the  uncircum- 
cised.  Whence,  O  my  God,  come  such  deplorable 
evils?  It  is  because  thou  hast  placed  over  our 
heads,  men  like  ourselves,  Priests  who  resemble 
the  people ;  it  is  because  our  guides  and  con 
ductors  themselves  point  out  to  us  a  road  which 
leads  to  death  :  Posuisti  nos  in  similitudinem 
gentibus  ....  imposuisti  homines  super  capita 
nostra*  Thus,  a  Priest  merely  because  he  does 
not  pray,  or  because  he  prays  but  negligently,  is, 
from  that  defect  alone,  set  up  for  the  ruin  of  his 
brethren  :  positus  est  hie  in  ruinam  multorum. 

In  the  second  place,  a  Priest  is  appointed  to 
reconcile  men  with  God  :  Ut  rcpropiliarct  dc- 
llcta  populi  ;f  he  is  established  to  offer  up  the 
victim  of  propitiation,  which  alone,  God  regards 
with  a  favorable  eye,  and  which  alone  is  capa 
ble  of  disarming  his  wrath,  when  it  is  kindled 
by  the  sins  of  the  people.  Now,  what  does  a 
Priest,  who  has  never  received,  or  who  has  ex- 

*  Psalm  43,  v.  15,  and  65,  v.  12.       f  Heb.  c.  ii.  v.  17. 


12  ON   THE   EXCELLENCE 

tinguished  the  grace  of  his  vocation,  corre  to  do, 
when  he  ascends  to  the  altar?  He  corner  as  a  pub 
lic  minister,  to  raise  to  heaven,  his  hands,  empty 
and  perhaps  impure,  which  will  bear  his  infi 
delities  into  the  very  presence  of  the  Alm'ghty  ; 
lie  comes  to  defile,  by  his  very  looks,  the  pre 
tence  of  the  tremendous  mysteries  ;  he  comes  to 
offer  up  to  the  Father,  the  blood  of  his  eternal 
Son,  which  he  sheds  and  profanes,  and  which 
cries  for  vengeance  against  him  ;  he  comes  a$ 
an  enemy,  and  not  as  a  Priest,  to  sacrifice  the 
victim  of  life ;  in  a  word,  he  comes  to  renew  the 
crime  and  the  guilt  of  the  crucifixion.  Alas  !  1 
ask,,  what  can  the  people  promise  themselves 
from  this  minister  of  death  ?  what,  but  the  con 
vulsion  of  all  nature,  as  formerly,  the  eclipse  of 

the  shining  lights  of  the  firmament,  the  veil  of 

0*0  * 

the  temple  rent  asunder,  schisms,  divisions,  here 
sies  in  the  church,  darkness  over  all  the  earth, 
the  confusion  and  horror  of  the  whole  universe. 
For,  if  from  the  earliest  ages  of  the  church, 
disease  among  the  people,  sudden  deaths,  fre 
quent  and  fatal  accidents,  were  the  sad  conse 
quences  of  unworthy  communions  alone ;  if 
Saint  Paul  assigns  no  other  cause  for  these  dis 
asters  :  Ideo  inter  vos  mulli  infirnu  ct  iniltecilles, 


OF  THE   PRIESTHOOD-  13 

ft  dormiunt  multi :  *  what  chastisements,  O 
great  God.,  dost  thoii  reserve  for  unworthy  sa 
crifices.,  for  oblations  profaned,  for  mysteries 
defiled  ?  Do  not  doubt  it,  my  brethren,,  if  the 
scourges  of  heaven  are  so  common  and  so  terri 
ble  in  our  days  ;  if  the  evils  and  the  dissentions 
of  the  church,  seem,  every  day,  to  increase  and 
become  more  inveterate ;  if  the  public  calami 
ties  are  so  lasting;  if  evils  are  multiplied  upon 
us  ;  it  is  the  profanation  of  holy  things  that 
-arms  the  divine  justice  ;  it  is  wicked  Priests  that 
draw  down  these  misfortunes  upon  the  people  : 
Propter  hoc  enim,  says  Saint  Gregory  Nazianzen, 
res  omnes  nostrce  jactantur  et  concuiiuntur ; 
propter  hoc  fries  orb  is  terrce  suspicione  €t  belfa 
flagrant.^ 

Yes,  my  brethren,  it  is  the  Jonases,  those  dis 
obedient  prophets,  who  draw  down  from  the 
stores  of  the  anger  of  God,  the  winds  and  tem 
pests  which  have  so  often  beaten  and  endanger 
ed  the  vessel  of  the  chujch,  and  which  would 
have  miserably  sunk  her  in  the  abyss,  if  the 
gates  of  hell  could  prevail  against  the  promise* 
of  Christ,  and  if  he  himself  had  not  placed  bound* 
to  the  impetuosity  of  the  waves,  beyond  which 

*  Cor.  c,  xi.  v.  13.     f  St.  Gregory  Naz.  Orat.  2$. 


14  ON   THE   EXCELLENCE 

they  shall  never  pass.  Yes,  my  brethren,  the 
many  nations  that  have  fallen  oiF  from  the  unity 
of  faith,  and  become  followers  of  strange  doc 
trines,  will  one  day  rise  up  against  those  un 
worthy  pastors,  who  yet  lived  when  error  began 
to  be  disseminated  amongst  them,  and  will  re 
proach  them  with  the  profanations  of  which  they 
were  guilty,  and  which  alone  had  determined 
the  justice  of  God  to  make  use  of  heresy  to  over 
turn  the  altars  they  had  so  long  defiled,  and  to 
abandon  to  his  enemies,  those  temples  which 
the  irreligion  of  his  ministers  had  a  thousand 
times  polluted.  They  will  upbraid  those  scan 
dalous  Priests,  that  a  strange  worship  would 
never  have  succeeded  to  the  devotion  of  their 
fathers,  nor  would  the  Ark  of  the  Covenant  in 
the  midst  of  them,  have  become  the  prey  of  the 
Philistines,  if  the  Lord,  weary  of  the  transgres 
sions  by  which,  like  Ophni  and  Phinees,  they 
had  dishonoured  his  service,  had  not  withdrawn 
the  glory  of  his  presence  from  between  the  che 
rubim.  Hear  how  the  Lord  himself  complains 
of  them,  by  the  mouth  of  his  prophet :  The 
unworthy  pastors  are  the  fatal  source  of  all  the 
misfortunes  of  my  church  ;  it  is  they  that  have 
brought  ruin  and  utter  desolation  over  my  cho 
sen  vineyard  :  Pastores  demoliti  sunt  vmeam 


OF   THE   PRIESTHOOD.  15 

meam*  The  portion  of  my  inheritance,  once 
rich  and  abundant  in  fruits,  they  have  changed 
into  a  frightful  \vilderness  :  Dederunt  portio- 
nem  meam  desiderabilem  in  desertum  solitudi- 
m's.f  They  have  darkened  all  its  beauty,  they 
have  left  it  exposed  to  the  plunder  and  the  fury 
of  its  enemies  ;  and  the  unfortunate  land  still 
weeps  over  the  mournful  solitude,  which  the 
prevarication  of  those  who  were  appointed  to 
watch  in  its  defence,  have  brought  upon  it: 
Posuerunt  earn  in  dissipationem,  luxitque  super 
me:  desolatione  desolata  est  omnis  terra.l  What 
a  misfortune,  then,  my  brethren,  for  an  age,  for  a 
kingdom,  for  a  people,  is  a  single  pastor,  un 
worthy  of  his  ministry !  he  is  set  up  only  for 
the  ruin  of  his  brethren,  Positus  in  ruinam 
multorum. 

We  read  in  history  that,  at  the  birth  of  those 
tyrannical  and  cruel  emperors  who  were,  one 
xlay,  to  persecute  the  church,  and  inundate  the 
empire  with  the  blood  of  Christians,  frightful 
signs  appeared  in  the  heavens,  and  there  traced 
the  fatal  presage  of  future  calamities.  It  may 
be  that  such  observations  sprung  from  the  cre 
dulity  of  the  people.  But  if  we  knew  how  to 

*  Jerem.  c.  xii.  v.  10.      t  Ibid,      t  Ibid.  v.  11. 


15  ON   THE    EXCELLENCE 

interpret  the  appearances  of  the  heavens,  or  ra 
ther  if  it  were  true,  that  the  finger  of  God  had 
incribed  on  them,  the  evils  to  come  upon   hi* 
church,  we  should,  without  doubt,  there  see  ter 
rific  signs  preside  at  the  birth  of  a  bad  Priest : 
we  might  read  there,  by  anticipation,  the  story 
of  public  calamities  ;  we  should  see   all  nature 
tremble  at  the  present  which  God,  in  his  wrath, 
had  given  to  men  ;  and  affrighted  by  such  pro 
digies,  we  would  ask  ourselves,  like  the  parents 
of  the  Baptist,  but  in  a  sense  altogether  diffe 
rent,  who  then  is  this  child  to  be  ?     and  what 
pew  misfortune  does  he  come  to  bring  upon  the 
earth  ?   Quid  putas,  puer  iste  erit  ?*    And  truly, 
the  cruelties  of  those  tyrants  in  making  martyrs 
to  religion,  at  least  multiplied  the  faithful,  and 
bore  to  the  truth  of  the  gospel,  a  bloody  and 
public  testimony  which  gave  glory  to  God.    But 
the  infidelities  of  a  bad  Priest,  whilst  they  af 
flict  the  church,  announce  nothing  but  calami 
ties  still  more  lamentable  than  the  very  scan 
dals  by  which  he  disgraces  her.     And  when  I 
say  a  bad  Priest,  I  do  not  mean  one  guilty  of 
the  most  enormous  crimes,  but  one  that  is  world 
ly,  ambitious,  dissipated,  given  to  the  amuse- 

Luke,  c.  i.  v.  66. 


OP  THE   PRIESTHOOD,  17 

meats  and  the  frivolities  of  the  world,,  more  oc 
cupied  with  his  hopes  of  gain  and  the  care  of  his 
fortune,  than  with  the  functions  of  the  sacred 
ministry  ;  and  I  say  that  he  is  the  man  of  sin, 
seated  in  the  temple  of  God;  a  scourge  pre 
pared  by  the  divine  justice,  for  the  iniquity  of 
men,  a  child  of  wrath,  born  to  be  a  curse  to 
his  brethren :  Positus  in  ruinam  multorum. 

In  the  third  place,  a  Priest  is  a  co-operator 
with  God  in  the  salvation  of  souls  :  Dei  adju- 
tores.*  Through  the  channel  of  the  sacraments, 
he  applies  to  men  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ;  he 
purifies  their  conscience  in  the  waters  of  pe 
nance  ;  he  announces  to  the  faithful  the  words 
of  life  and  reconciliation,  and  breaks  to  them 
the  bread  of  doctrine  and  truth. 

Now  a  Priest  who  is  unworthy  of  this  au 
gust  name,  becomes  by  these  very  functions  the 
co-operator  of  Satan  in  the  seduction  and  the 
ruin  of  his  brethren.  Nor  do  I  confine  this  ob 
servation  to  those  ignorant  and  mercenary  pas 
tors  alone,  who  regard  piety  as  a  traffic  ;  who, 
without  science  or  merit,  are  guided  in  the  tri 
bunal  of  penance,  only  by  an  indiscriminate  and 
criminal  indulgence,  and  who  having  entered 

*  1.  Cor.  c.  iii.  v.  9. 
c 


}8  ON   THE    EXCELLENCE 

into  this  difficult  and  formidable  function,  with 
out  vocation,  without  learning,  without  know 
ledge  of  its  rules,  without  elevation    of  mind, 
and  without  the  purity  of  motive  worthy  of  the 
greatness  and  sanctity  of  such  a  ministry,  dis 
charge  its  duties,   without   order,   without   dis 
cernment,  without  zeal,  and  without  any  atten 
tion  either  to  the  dispositions  of  sinners  or  to 
the  enormity  of  their  guilt.      I  pass  over  the  in 
numerable  evils  with  which   their  ministry  af 
flicts  the  church  :  the   confidence  and    impeni 
tence  of  sinners;  the  neglect  or  abuse  of  essen 
tial  obligations  ;  the  frequentation  of  the  sacra 
ments  in  a  state  of  criminality  ;    the  indocility 
and  disgust  of  people  of  the  world,  when  we  at 
tempt  to  undeceive  them  by  pointing  out  the  true 
road  to  salvation  ;  the  continuance  of  sinful  cus 
toms  and  of   false  maxims  among  the  faithful; 
the  inutility,  in  their  regard,  of  the  sacred  mys 
teries,  of  the  solemnities  and  the  favors  of  the 
church ;    in  fine,  their  confidence  and  security 
on  the  bed  of  death.     It  is  the  ignorant  and  un 
faithful  dispensers  of  the  sacrament  of  penance, 
who  alone,  have  changed  the  face  of  Christianity: 
thev  alone    have  destroyed  whatever   remained 
of  faith,  of  piety,  of  respect  for  ancient  prac 
tices,  and  that  Christian  spirit  which  the  lapse  of 


OF   THE    PRIESTHOOD. 


19 


ages  had  not  been  able  to  extinguish :  in  a  word/ 
they  alone  are  the  corrupters  of  the  people,  the 
notorious  cause  of  the  decay  of  morals,  the  first 
era  of  the  general  depravity,  relaxation  and  im 
penitence  of  the  faithful.  For  alas!  my  bre 
thren,  you  know  it  well,  in  the  world,  ail  is 
treachery,  danger,  and  seduction  for  innocence. 
There  remained  then  for  it  only  the  holy  moun 
tain,  the  sacred  tribunal  of  penance,  whither  the 
soul  that  was  endangered  might  fly  like  the  dove 
for  safety,  or  at  least  for  help  to  extricate  her 
from  the  nets  in  which  the  world  and  the  devil 
had  entangled  her.  Now  it  is  on  this  very  moun 
tain,  on  the  Thabor  where  she  hoped  to  find  an 
asylum,,  that  she  meets,  in  the  ignorance,  in 
the  criminal  indulgence,  perhaps  in  the  corrup 
tion  and  mercenary  disposition  of  the  pastor, 
snares  far  more  dangerous  than  those  from  which 
she  had  escaped,  because  she  is  without  suspi 
cion  of  their  existence,  and  that  religion  itself 
seems  to  warrant  her  security  and  confidence  : 
Audile  hoc  Sacerdotes  .  .  .  quia  vobis  judicium 
Cst,  quoniam  laqueus  facti  esi,w  speculalioni  ct 
rete  expansum  super  Thabor*  Hear,  O  ye 
Priests,  says  the  prophet  Osee,  because  far  from 

*  Osee,  c.  i.  v.  1. 


20  ON    THE   EXCELLENCE 

being  the  guides  of  my  people,  and  far  from 
conducting  them  in  my  paths,  you  dig  pits  into 
which  they  fall  without  resource  ;  and  instead 
of  bursting,  have  tightened,  the  bonds  of  idola 
try  and  dissoluteness  in  which  they  were  cap 
tive,  and  have  yourselves  been  to  them  as  fatal 
toils,  from  which  the  simplicity,  which  you  have 
abused  can  no  longer  escape;  therefore  shall 
judgment  come  upon  you  :  Aiidile  hoc  Sacer- 
dotes  .  .  .  quid  vobis  judicium  est,  quoniam  la- 
queus  facti  estis  speculation  et  rete  expanswn 
super  Thabor. 

I  do  not,  I  say,  speak  of  these  unworthy  and 
guilty  pastors,  in  a  place  so  full  of  the  spirit  of 
the  priesthood :  I  speak  only  of  those  who  weak 
en  the  effect  of  their  ministry  by  tepid  and 
worldly  habits ;  and  I  say  that  in  neglecting  to 
stir  up  in  themselves,  the  spirit  of  their  voca 
tion,  by  prayer,  by  estrangement  from  the  world, 
by  the  mortification  of  the  senses,  by  a  life  in 
terior  and  recollected,  they  can  have  no  grace 
to  speak  of  the  things  of  God.  They  reprove, 
they  correct  and  instruct  in  the  tribunal,  without 
unction,  without  zeal,  without  benediction  :  the 
most  terrible  truths  which  they  utter,  are  ac 
companied  by  an  air  of  dryness,  of  constraint  and 
of  insensibility,  which  divests  them  of  all  their 


OF   THE    PRIESTHOOD. 

force :  they  no  longer  find  those  tender  expres 
sions  which  spring  from  the  heart,  and  which 
alone  can  reach  and  affect  it :  they  want  that 
character  of  piety,  which  gives  to  the  simplest 
discourse,  so  much  weight  and  so  much  energy : 
the  coldness  of  their  heart  seems  to  freeze  the 
words  on  their  very  tongue;  and  it  is  impossi 
ble  that  they  could  infuse  into  the  souls  of  the 
faithful,  that  ardor  of  religion,  that  divine  flame 
of  heavenly  love,  of  which  they  feel  not  a  spark 
in  themselves.  For,  my  brethren,  it  is  neces 
sary,  after  long  converse  with  the  Lord,  to 
descend  like  Moses  from  the  mountain,  that  is, 
from  prayer  and  retreat,  to  speak  with  dignity 
and  effect,  of  the  sanctity  of  the  law  ;  to  in 
spire  terror  into  the  soul  of  its  violator ;  to  force 
tears  of  compunction  from  the  worshippers  of 
the  golden  calf,  and  compel  them  by  the  unc 
tion  and  the  vehemence  of  a  holy  zeal,  to  burn 
and  trample  in  the  dust,  those  idols  which,  be 
fore,  they  had  adored. 

And,  hence  it  is,  my  brethren,  that  sinners 
rise  from  the  knees  of  those  tepid  and  worth 
less  Priests,  cold  and  frozen :  hence  also  that 
insipidity  of  the  pastor,  arising  from  his  little 
practice  in  speaking  of  the  things  of  God, 
which  weakens  the  holy  terror  of  those  truths 


ON    THE    EXCELLENCE 


which   the  spirit   of   God   had   awaked   in  the 
hearts  of   sinners,   and    extinguishes   in    them, 
those  first  agitations  of  grace  and   repentance 
which  they  bring  to  the  tribunal  ;   so  that  those 
who  had  approached  these  salutary  waters,  de 
jected,   trembling,   confounded  at  their  crimes, 
depart  from  them,  calm,  confident,  almost  per 
suaded  that  they  had  magnified  to   themselves, 
the  enormity  of  their  disorders,  and  that  there 
was    no    just    cause    for    their    great    alarms. 
Hence  also,  these  tepid  and  worldly  pastors,  if 
they  undertake  the  public  ministry  of  instruc 
tion,  as  they  possess  neither  a  tender  piety  nor 
a  heart  bleeding  for  the  transgressions  of  the 
faithful,   are   obliged  to  supply   the  deficiency. 
by  having  recourse  to  an  eloquence,  empty,  bar 
ren,  cold  and  puerile,    whose  only  effect   is  to 
disgrace  the  sacred  majesty  of  the  gospel  ;   and 
thus,  the  Christian  pulpit  is  become  an  exhibi 
tion,  a  sounding  brass,  and  the  venerable  truths 
of    religion   are   weakened    and   disfigured    by 
heartless  and  profane  discourses:   hence,  apos 
tolic  men  are  so  rare:    hence,   the  ministry  of 
the  word,  that  great  resource  of  the  salvation  of 
the  people,  is  confided  to  men,  weak  in  faith, 
strane-ers  to  the  science  of  the  saints,  void  of 

o 

the  spirit  of  God,  and  oftentimes  full  of  them- 


OF    THE    PRIESTHOOD. 

selves  and  of  the  spirit  of  the  world :  that  is 
to  say,  hence,  is  the  preaching-  of  the  gospel 
without  fruit ;  the  most  holy  season  of  the  year 
.without  penance;  the  prayers  of  the  church 
without  effect;  all  the  public  functions  of  the 
ministry,  and  all  the  sources  of  salvation,,  with 
out  advantage  to  the  faithful. 

No,  my  brethren,  whatever  may  be  the  inno 
cence  of  life,  of  which  such  Priests  may  other 
wise  boast,  they  are  according  to  the  expres 
sion  of  the  prophet,  breasts  without  suck,  and 
wombs  that  bring  not  forth:  they  kill  and  de 
stroy,  like  the  bad  shepherds,  merely  because 
they  neglect  to  nourish  and  vivify  the  flock. 
The  unction,  the  benediction,  which  by  the 
tepid  and  careless  discharge  of  their  duties,, 
they  fail  to  draw  down  on  their  ministry,  is  a 
means  of  salvation,  of  which  they  deprive  their 
people  ;  and  it  is  true  to  say  of  a  Priest  with 
out  fervor,  without  recollection,  without  the  spi 
rit  of  prayer  and  of  mortification,  that  he  is  a 
scourge  of  God,  upon  his  brethren:  Posilus  in 
ruinam  multorum. 

In  fine,  even  although  we  should  propose  to 
ourselves  none  of  those  public  functions  ;  for 
I  do  not  examine  in  this  place,  how  far  it 
may  be  lawful  to  enter  into  the  church,  with 


ON    THE   EXCELLENCE 

the  intention  of  taking  no  part,  in  the  la 
bors  of  the  ministry ;  although,  I  say,  we 
should  propose  to  ourselves  no  public  function, 
and  should  desire  to  engage  in  the  priesthood 
only  for  ourselves,  yet  are  we  not  always  the 
models  of  the  flock,  forma  facti  gregis  ;  and 
is  it  not  in  our  morals  that  the  people  seek 
and  find  such  examples,  as  either  inspire  them 
with  the  love  of  virtue,  or  confirm  them  in  the 
habits  of  vice? 

Now  a  worldly  and  scandalous  Priest,  of 
what  sins  is  he  not  guilty,  even  by  barely  shew 
ing  himself  to  the  people?  He  owed  to  them 
the  regularity  of  an  edifying  conduct;  the  gra 
vity  of  virtuous  morals ;  the  censure  and  con 
demnation  of  the  crimes  and  the  disorders  of  the 
world,  by  his  very  example  :  his  holy  and  sa 
cerdotal  life  ought  to  confirm  in  their  mind, 
the  truth  of  the  maxims  of  Christ,  upon  the 
world,  and  upon  the  impossibility  of  salvation 
to  those  who  follow  its  practice,  and  cherish 
its  spirit.  What  secret  joy  !  what  an  authority 
for  them  !  what  an  apology  for  their  enormi 
ties,  when  they  find  in  him,  their  own  passions, 
their  own  errors,  their  own  weaknesses!  what 
consequences  do  they  not  draw  from  thence, 
regarding  those  terrible  truths  of  salvation,  by 


OF   THE    PRIESTHOOD.  25 

which  they  have  been  so  often  affrighted?  We 
exhort  them  in  vain  :  the  gospel  of  the  greater 
part  of  the  world,  is  the  life  of  the  clergy,  of 
which  they  are  the  witnesses  ;  it  is  not  what 
we  announce  to  them  from  the  Christian  pul 
pit,  but  what  they  see  us  practise  in  the  de 
tail  of  our  morals  :  they  look  upon  the  public 
ministry  of  the  word,  as  a  scene  destined  for 
the  delivery  of  sublime  maxims,  which  are  no 
longer  suited  to  the  weakness  of  human  na 
ture,  but  they  regard  our  conduct  as  the  reali 
ty,  and  the  true  standard  to  which  they  should 
endeavour  to  conform.  And  hence,  my  bre 
thren,  how  many  are  the  sinners  who,  affright 
ed  by  holy  inspirations,  oppose  perhaps,  no 
thing,  in  the  secret  of  their  hearts  to  the  im 
pulse  of  grace,  but  the  remembrance  of  the  fa 
tal  example  of  an  unworthy  Priest !  hence, 
how  many  seducers  of  innocence,  to  encourage 
a  timid  soul  in  the  paths  of  libertinism,  to 
harden  it  against  crime,  and  bind  it  in  the 
fetters  of  impiety,  appeal  to  the  notorious  scan 
dals  of  a  person  consecrated  to  God  !  how 
many  are  the  souls,  whose  reprobation  has 
been  effected,  by  the  public  disorders  of  a  wick 
ed  pastor!  how  many  secret  falls,  from  which 
there  is  no  return,  and  which  decide  for  eter- 


26  ON    THE    EXCELLENCE 

nity!  how  many  invisible  and  irreparable  misfor 
tunes  !  What  ravages  in  the  inheritance  of 
Christ,  of  which  the  angels  of  heaven  alone 
are  witnesses !  Great  God,  thou  beholdest  the 
mystery  of  iniquity,  which  is  done  in  secret ; 
thou  wilt  reveal  it  in  the  fitting  time,  and 
then  perhaps,  it  will  be  seen,  that  there  are 
but  few  Christians  in  hell,  who  cannot  point 
out  in  some  reprobate  Priest,  the  author  of 
their  everlasting  ruin. 

Yes,  my  brethren,  we  are  the  lamps  raised 
on  high,  to  shine  in  the  house  of  the  Lord  ; 
but  from  the  moment  in  which  the  pestilent 
breath  of  the  serpent,  has  extinguished  our 
light,  we  emit  on  all  sides,  a  thick  and  noxious 
smoak,  which  bears  darkness  and  infection 
around,  and  becomes  an  odor  of  death  to  those 
who  are  perishing :  we  are  the  pillars  of  the 
sanctuary,  but  being  pulled  down  and  scattered 
about,  are  become  stumbling  blocks  to  those 
who  pass  by :  we  are  the  salt  of  the  earth, 
intended  to  save  mortals  from  corruption,  but 
which  having  lost  its  savor,  corrupts,  itself, 
the  very  bodies  it  was  destined  to  preserve. 
All  the  power  and  all  the  virtue  with  which 
our  sacred  character  invests  us  for  the  sancti- 
fkation  of  the  people,  is  changed  into  the  in- 


OF   THE    PRIESTHOOD.  21 

strument  of  their  destruction,,  and  their  very 
physicians  are  become  for  them  the  sources  of 
their  most  contagious  and  incurable  maladies. 

So  the  holy  scriptures  inform  us,  that  the 
most  terrible  punishment  which  the  Lord  can 
exercise  on  cities  and  on  kingdoms,  is  to  raise 
up  wicked  Priests,  in  the  midst  of  them  :  it  is 
thus  he  punished  the  greatest  excesses  of  Jeru 
salem.  I  will  give  you,  says  he,  pastors  who 
will  call  evil,  good,  and  good,  evil ;  who  will 
not  lift  up  what  is  fallen,  nor  strengthen  what 
is  tottsring,  but  who  will  walk,  according  to 
their  own  ways :  such  is  the  last  and  the  great 
est  scourge.  When  he  is  but  slightly  irritated, 
lie  contents  himself  with  arming  kings  against 
kings,  and  nations  against  nations  ;  he  con 
founds  the  order  of  the  seasons,  strikes  the 
plains  with  drought  and  sterility,  or  scatters 
desolation,  famine  and  death,  over  the  earth. 
But  when  his  wrath  is  at  the  highest  point,  and 
all  his  other  scourges  seem  exhausted  ;  when 
he  says  in  his  indignation,  what  chastisement 
yet  remains  for  me  to  inflict  on  my  people,  and 
what  shall  be  the  last  mark  of  my  fury  upon 
them  ?  Super  quo  percutiam  vos  ultra  ?*  Oh  1 

*  Isaiah,  c.  i,  v.  5. 


23  ON   THE   EXCELLENCE 

it  is  then  he  draws  forth  from  the  treasury  of 
his  vengeance,  and  places  over  his  people,  un 
faithful  ministers,  pastors  that  are  worldly  and 
corrupt, 

Great  God !  to  what  then,  dost  thou  destine 
me,  in  the  terrible  secrets  of  thy  justice  :  I 
think  that  I  have  not  yet  so  far  abandoned  thee, 
m  to  become  thy  enemy  ;  that  I  have  yet  re 
maining  too  much  fear  of  thy  holy  name,  and 
too  much  desire  of  my  salvation,  not  to  be  un 
willing  to  become  the  minister  of  Satan,  against 
thee,  by  destroying  those  souls  whom  thou  hast 
purchased  by  all  the  blood  of  thy  only  Son. 
Nevertheless,  if  I  bear  within  my  bosom,  in  the 
discharge  of  my  ministry,  a  tepid  heart,  a  soul 
altogether  carnal ;  the  spirit,  the  views  and  the 
inclinations  of  the  world,  I  have  been  born  only 
for  the  ruin  of  my  brethren,  and  thou  hast  per 
haps  reserved  me  for  these  latter  times  of  relax 
ation,  and  general  depravity,  only  as  the  most 
terrible  scourge  which  thou  couldst  employ  to 
punish  the  disorders  of  the  age  :  Positns  in  rui- 
nam  multorum. 

These,  my  brethren,  are  terrifying  truths  ; 
but  let  us  not  forget  that  there  are  also  conso 
lations  ;  and  these  are  better  suited  to  the  pious 
assembly  which  I  have  now  the  honor  of  ad- 


OF   THE   PRIESTHOOD.  9 

dressing  ;  for  a  Priest  who  discharges  with  fide 
lity  and  zeal  the  functions  of  his  ministry,  is 
set  up  for  the  deliverance  and  the  salvation  of 
many  :  Positus  in  resurrectioncm  multorum. 

SECOND    REFLECTION. 

We  have  only  to  resume  the  same  train  of 
reasoning.  A  Priest  is  charged  with  the  inte 
rests  of  the  people  before  God:  he  is  one  of 
those  ansrels  who  incessantly  descend  and  as- 

o  » 

cend  the  mystic  ladder  of  Jacob  :  he  descends 
in  order  to  take  charge  of  the  vows  and  the  ne 
cessities  of  tire  people ;  he  ascends  by  prayer,  in 
order  to  bear  them  to  the  foot  of  God's  throne, 
and  open  the  bosom  of  the  divine  mercy  on  the 
miseries  of  his  brethren.  Now  how  great  is 
the  abundance  of  graces  and  of  benedictions, 
which  the  prayers  of  a  holy  Priest  draw  down 
upon  the  church!  For  his  are  not  the  vows 
of  a  private  individual,  who  without  title,  with 
out  authority,  without  public  function,  ad 
dresses  himself  to  the  Lord  in  his  own  name, 
and  who,  dust  and  ashes  as  he  is,  should  es 
teem  as  a  great  favor,  the  very  liberty  of  speak 
ing  to  his  God.  They  are  the  vows  of  a  public 
minister,  established  for  men,  in  the  things  that 
appertain  to  God  :  who  prays  in  the  right  of 


30  ON    THE    EXCELLENCE 

kis  office,  who  speaks  in  the  name  of  the  who'c 
church,  particularly  of  the  entire  body  of  the 
just,  who  constitute  its  most  pure  and  most  es 
sential  part,  that  is  to  say,  who  speaks  in  the 
name  of  Jesus  Christ  and  of  his  members,  who 
form  but  one  body,  one  Christ,  whom  the  Fa 
ther  always  hears,  whose  petitions  he  never  re 
jects.  What  do  I  say?  They  are  the  vows  of 
a  Priest  who  in  virtue  of  his  priesthood,  forms 
but  the  same  Priest,  the  same  mediator,  the 
same  voice  with  Jesus  Christ,  and  who  appears 
before  God  clothed  with  the  same  titles  and 
the  same  rights.  What,  O  Lord  !  canst  thou 
refuse  to  prayers,  dictated  by  piety,  inflamed 
by  charity,  consecrated  by  the  faith  of  all  the 
just,  bearing  to  thee,  the  desires  of  the  entire 
church,  and  presented  by  thy  only  Son,  at  the 
foot  of  thy  throne? 

We  are  sometimes  surprised,  my  brethren,  by 
signal  conversions  in  the  church  and  in  the 
world :  to  see  worldly,  effeminate  and  dissi 
pated  pastors,  resuming  the  spirit  of  their  vo 
cation  ;  renouncing  all  human  views  and  human 
interests,  and  consecrating  themselves  to  the 
most  laborious  and  most  humiliating  duties  : 
dissolute  and  scandalous  sinners,  becoming,  all 
on  a  sudden,  sincere  and  humble  penitents  : 


OF   THE    PRIESTHOOD. 


31 


infidels  themselves  who  gloried  in  their  horrible 
impiety,  quickly  changed  into  humble  and  pious 
Christians.  We  ask  each  other,  whence  could 
come  changes  so  unexpected,  and  which  it 
seems,  nothing  had  prepared  us  to  look  for. 
The  world  which  ever  judges  in  a  worldly  man 
ner  of  the  works  of  God,  always  finds  human 
reasons  to  explain  them.  But  if  we  could  as 
cend  to  the  true  cause,  we  should  see  that  they 
are  the  effect  of  the  prayers  of  some  holy  Priest^ 
who  perceiving  by  the  lights  of  the  tribunal, 
the  deplorable  condition  of  those  souls,  and  the 
little  benefit  which  they  derived  from  his  wise 
instructions,  and  his  secret  and  tender  remon 
strances  ;  sensibly  afflicted  at  their  errors  and 
their  impending  destruction,  had  always  wept 
before  God  over  their  misfortunes,  and  had  not 
ceased  to  cry  out  in  the  bitterness  of  his  heart; 
Pardon,  O  Lord,  pardon  those  souls  whom  thou 
hast  redeemed  by  thy  precious  blood ;  burst  the 
fatal  chains  in  which  they  are  bound;  deliver 
not  to  the  devouring  lion,  souls  that  confess 
thy  holy  name;  remember  thy  eternal  promises 
and  thy  ancient  mercies ;  and  suffer  thyself  to 
be  more  moved  by  their  miserable  state  than 
by  their  blindness  and  their  crimes.  It  is  here 
4 he  stroke  has  been  given,  which  has  beaten 


32  ON    THE   EXCELLENCE 

down  those  rebellious  and  inveterate  sinners, 
and  changed  them  into  penitents  full  of  humility 
and  sorrow.  Ananias  prays  in  the  privacy  of 
his  house ;  he  asks,  undoubtedly,  for  the  conver 
sion  of  a  persecutor,  who,  he  knew,  had  set  out 
from  Jerusalem,  and  was  approaching,  breath 
ing  only  the  ruin  and  slaughter  of  the  new 
Christians  :  his  prayers  finish  what  those  of  the 
holy  deacon  Stephen  had  begun  ;  Saul  is  struck 
to  the  ground  on  the  road  to  Damascus;  and 
from  a  persecutor  is  turned  into  a  vessel  of  elec 
tion,  to  bear  the  name  of  Christ  before  kings 
and  princes  and  the  nations  of  the  earth. 

No,  my  brethren,  there  is  nothing  which  the 
prayers  of  a  good  Priest  cannot  obtain  from  the 
Father  of  mercies  :  they  offer  a  holy  violence  to 
his  justice,  and  resist,  as  it  were,  the  execution 
of  his  vengeance.  Thus  we  read,  that  when  on 
account  of  repeated  prevarications,  he  had  re 
solved  to  exterminate  the  disobedient  children  of 
Israel,  and  not  suffer  his  justice  to  relent  in 
their  regard,  he  himself  conjures  Moses  and 
Aaron,  no  longer  to  intercede  in  their  favor  ; 
no  longer  to  restrain  his  arm  raised  to  chastise 
the  iniquities  of  his  people,  but  to  allow  his 
just  indignation  to  take  its  course,  as  though 
it  were  not  possible  for  him  to  withstand  the 


OF   THE   PRIESTHOOD.  33 

prayers  or  disregard  the  supplications  of  the 
mediator  and  the  pontiff  of  his  covenant.  And 
behold  here  the  reason  why  the  first  Priests  and 
faithful,  distinguished  the  different  hours  of  the 
day,,  only  by  their  public  prayers  :  they  were 
the  principal  and  ruling  exercise,  to  which  every 
thing  else  was  referred :  prayer  and  the  minis 
try  of  the  word  were  the  only  occupation  of  the 
pastors,  the  only  one  which  they  had  received 
by  succession  from  the  apostles  Hence,  wrhat 
graces  were  then  poured  upon  the  church!  how 
many  generous  martyrs  !  how  many  pure  and 
illustrious  virgins!  how  many  venerable  pastors! 
how  great  the  fervor  of  the  faithful !  how  rigo 
rous  the  penance  of  the  anchorets !  how  beau 
tiful  were  then,  the  tents  of  Jacob !  what  a 
spectacle  did  the  church  present  in  those  days! 
how  worthy  the  respect  and  admiration  of  her 
very  enemies!  what  a  glorious  object  was  then 
the  assembly  of  the  faithful,  a  thousand  times 
more  illustrious  and  more  august,  by  the  pious 
unanimity,  by  the  fervent  zeal,  by  the  inno 
cence  of  morals,  by  the  lively  charity  which 
united  all  its  members,  than  it  is,  at  this  day, 
by  the  titles  and  dignities,  by  the  very  sceptres 
and  crowns  of  those  who  compose  it.  Thus, 
although  a  holy  Priest  were  merely  to  pray,  it 

D 


ON   THE 

is  yet  always  true  to  say,  that 'he  is  set  up  for 
the  salvation  of  many:  Positu*  in  resurreclm- 
nem  multorum. 

But,  in  the  second  place,  a  Priest  is  the  sa- 
crificer  of  the  new  covenant ;  he  renews,  every 
day  on  the  altar,  the  one  oblation,  the  great  sa 
crifice,  the  resource  of  the  human  race,   fore 
told  from  the  beginning  of  the  world  :  he  ap 
pears  in  the  place  of  Jesus  Christ  forming  hi* 
church  by  his  death,  immolating  himself  anew 
for  her ;  every  day  washing  away  her  stains  in 
his  blood,  strengthening  her  against  the  efforts 
of  hell ;    renovating  whatever  is  decayed ;  pre 
senting  her  to  his  clement  and  merciful  Father, 
that  he  may  vouchsafe  to  give  her  peace,  to  ter 
minate  her  internal  dissensions,  to  defend  her 
against  the  attacks  of  error,  to  reunite  in  her 
bosom,   those  who  have  torn  it  by  their  sepa 
ration,  to  reunite  all  her  own  children   in   the 
spirit  of  charity  and  truth,  and  in  fine,  to  go 
vern  and  direct  her,  wherever  her  members  are 
found  throughout  the  whole  earth  :  and  hence  it 
is,  that  prayers  and  supplications  are  offered  to 
his  holy  nanle,  for  princes,  for  kings,  for  pas 
tors,  and  for  all  those  that  are  in  elevated  sta 
tions,  that  they  may  maintain  the  peace  of  the 
church,  the  repose  of  the  faithful,  the  dignity 


OF   THE   PRIESTHOOD.  35 

of  the  altar,  the  decency  and  solemnity  of  pub 
lic  worship. 

Now  a  fervent  Priest,  is  at  the  altar,  the  mi 
nister  of  all  the  graces,  which  are  poured  on 
the  various  members  of  the  church  :  it  is  he 
that  offers  up  the  adorable  victim  from  which 
these  inestimable  blessings  are  derived  to  men : 
it  is  he  who,  like  to  Abel,  conciliates  the  fa 
vor  of  the  Lord  to  these  holy  oblations.  It  is 
not  that  the  victim  draws  its  value  from  the 
excellence  of  the  minister  who  offers  it,  but  a 
holy  Priest,  opposes  no  obstacle  to  the  immense 
benefits  which  flow  from  this  great  sacrifice,  on 
the  earth;  he  leaves  it  all  its  value,  and  adds 
to  it,  as  it  were,  that  of  his  own  piety  and 
fervor. 

It  was  to  the  celebration  of  the  holy  mys 
teries,  and  to  the  sanctity  of  her  first  pastors, 
that  the  church  once  owed  the  conversion  of 
the  Cesars.  Forced  to  conceal  themselves  in 
obscure  and  subterraneous  places  for  the  re 
newal  of  the  unbloody  sacrifice,  they  offered  it, 
for  the  very  princes  whose  cruel  persecutions 
compelled  them  to  take  refuge,  in  those  dark 
and  dreary  abodes ;  and  in  weeping  over  the 
subjection,  and  praying  for  the  liberty,  of  the 
church,  which  beheld  with  grief,  these  mysteries 


36  ON    THE    EXCELLENCE 

of  light,  turned,  as  it  were,  into  mysteries  of 
darkness,  they  hastened  the  conversion  of  the 
Emperors,  whose  blindness  oppressed,  and  whose 
jealousy  held  her  in  captivity. 

Even  in  these  days,  my  brethren,  it  is  to  the 
mystic  benedictions  of  holy  ministers,  that  the 
church  owes  the  pious  princes,  the  faithful  pas 
tors,  the  great  men  whom  God  raises  up,  from 
time  to  time,  to  enlighten  the  world ;  to  defend 
the  faith  against  the  assaults  of  error;  to  up 
hold  decaying  but  venerable  institutions,  and 
prevent  falsehood  from  prescribing  against  truth : 
to  the  same  cause,  we  should  ascribe  the  un 
expected  relief  from  public  calamities,  the  escape 
from  impending  scourges,  the  termination  of 
wars,  in  circumstances  which  seemed  to  threaten 
that  they  would  last  for  ever  :  such  are  the 
blessings  that  spring  from  this  source.  Those 
who  judge  of  things  only  by  the  limited  views 
of  the  human  mind,  attribute  the  honor  to  the 
wisdom  of  princes,  and  the  profound  policy  of 
their  ministers ;  but  could  they  see  events  in  their 
first  and  secret  cause,  they  would  often  find 
that  a  faithful  pastor,  a  Priest  not  unfrequentljr 
obscure  and  hidden  from  the  eyes  of  men,  has 
far  greater  influence  oil  public  events,  than 
those  important  men  who  are  placed  at  the  head 


OF   THE    PRIESTHOOD.  37 

of  affairs,  and  who  seem  to  hold  in  their  hands 
the  destiny  of  people  and  of  empires.  What 
a  treasure  then  for  the  earth,  is  a  holy  Priest! 
what  a  gift  to  the  church !  what  a  blessing 
and  resource  for  the  faithful !  what  a  happi 
ness  for  cities  and  for  kingdoms !  and  how  many 
powerful  motives  to  animate  us,  to  renew,  with 
out  ceasing,  the  spirit  of  our  vocation,  to  stir 
up  in  ourselves  the  grace  of  the  priesthood, 
and  never  to  suffer  that  first  fervor  to  cool, 
which  has  consecrated  us  to  the  ministry  of  the 
altar :  Positus  in  resurrectionem  multorum. 

But  not  only  does  the  Priest  offer  the  victim 
of  redemption  and  of  propitiation,  but,  in  the 
third  place  he  is  the  co-operator  of  God,  in 
the  salvation  of  souls,  by  the  administration  of 
the  sacraments,  by  the  preaching  of  the  word, 
and  by  all  the  functions  which  tend  to  the  sal 
vation  of  his  brethren.  Thus  how  many  are 
the  graces,  of  which  a  holy  and  enlightened  pas 
tor,  is  both  the  instrument  and  the  minister,  in 
his  various  duties  !  If  he  receives  the  deposit 
of  consciences,  how  many  sinners  moved  to 
compunction  at  the  tribunal,  in  those  happy  mo 
ments  in  which  the  soul  is  entirely  open,  and 
in  which  a  \vord  said  with  unction,  pierces  to 
the  quick  and  never  returns  empty  !  how  many 


38  ON    THE    EXCELLENCE 

others  enlightened  and  undeceived  with  regard 
to  abuses  and  maxims,  which  they  thought  in 
nocent,  either  because  they  were  authorized  by 
general  usage,    or  even  by  ignorant  and  blind 
guides !   how  many  crimes  prevented  !   how  ma 
ny  souls  drawn  from  the  abyss  of  guilt  in  which 
they  were   so   long  sunk !    how    many    others, 
timid  and  insincere,  who  had,  heretofore,    lyed 
to  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  concealed  the  shame  of 
their  wounds  from  the  physician,  brought  back 
to  sincerity  and  penance!  how  many  sacrilegi 
ous  profanations   interrupted!    how  many  tears 
and  groans  of  sorrow  forced  from  the  obdurate 
sinner!   how  many  holy  desires  inspired!   how 
many  seeds  of  conversion  sown  in  other  souls, 
which  will  bear  their  fruit  in  due  season !  how 
many  just   supported  in  piety,  and   how  many 
others,  that  were  wavering,  gained  to  Christ  by 
their  example !    Count,  if  you  can,  the  infinite 
number  of  these  graces  and  blessings,  and  com 
prehend  how  far  a  Priest  renders  himself  guilty, 
when  he  deprives  the  church  of  them,   by    the 
coldness  and  inutility  of  his  ministry  :    Positus 
in  resurrectionem  multorum. 

If  he  announces  the  word  of  the  gospel,  how 
many  ignorant,  instructed !  how  many  hardened 
consciences  shaken !  how  many  infidels  con- 


0E   THE   PRIESTHOOD*  39 

founded  !  how  many  just,  confirmed  !  what  a 
new  force  and  authority  for  these  austere  max 
ims  of  Christianity,,  which  the  world  neven 
ceases  to  combat  and  extenuate  1  how  many, 
preachers  themselves,  corrected  and  brought 
back  to  the  model  of  his  simplicity,  his  unc 
tion,  his  holy  vehemence  I  What  men  were  the 
Bernards,  the  Xaviers3  the  Patricks,  the  Ma- 
lachys  1*  every  thing  was  borne  down  by  the 
energetic  eloquence,  and  the  power  of  the  spi 
rit  which  spokje  in  them :  cities,  courts,  pro 
vinces,  kingdoms,  nobles  and  people,  nothing 
could  withstand  the  impetuosity  of  their  &eal, 
and  the  distinguished  sanctity  of  their  morals.: 
the  tears,  the  groans,  the  silence  and  deep  sor 
row  of  those  who-  heard  them,  were  the  only 
applause  which  attended  their  ministry:  their 
austere  and  penitential  lives  left  to  the  world 
no*  reply  to.  the  truths-  w-hich  they  announced  ; 
the  simplicity  and  the  severity  of  their  morals 
did  not  belie  the  gospel  which  they  preached  : 
their  example,  instructed,  persuaded,  eflecletl 


two  last  names  have  been  substituted  for 
those  of  the  Raymonds  and  Vincent- Ferriers  of 
the  text.  This  change,  it  is  hoped,  will  require  no 
apology. 


40  0N  THE    EXCELLENCE 

still  more  than  their  discourses  ;  and  the  spirit 
of  God,  which  inflamed  them,  and  the  divine 
fire  with  which  they  were  filled,  found  the  way 
to  the  coldest  and  most  insensible  hearts,  and 
turned  the  sacred  temples  in  which  the  faithful 
had  assembled  to  hear  them,  into  so  many  sup 
per-rooms,*  from  which  each  one  went  forth 
like  the  apostles,  inflamed,  and,  as  it  were, 
inebriated  by  the  abundance  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
which  he  had  received.  What  great  things,  is 
not  a  single  apostolic  man,  capable  of  produc 
ing  on  the  earth  !  alas !  twelve  of  them  were 
enough  to  convert  the  whole  universe :  Posilus 
in  resurrectionem  multorum. 

In  fine,  the  last  reason  is  drawn  from  the  zeal 
and  the  very  example  of  a  holy  Priest.  I  say 
first,  of  his  zeal,  that  although  he  should  fill 
no  public  function ;  although  through  a  senti 
ment  of  humility  or  the  consciousness  of  the 
want  of  talents,  he  should  carefully,  and  for 
ever,  avoid  every  exalted  office,  at  the  same 
time  that  piety  alone  in  a  Priest  is  a  great  talent, 
and  that  with  it,  he  may  be  said  to  have,  as  it 
were,  all  others  :  Venerunt  mihi  ornnia  bona,  cum 
ilia  :f  although  he  should  devote  himself  solely 

*  See  Acts.  c.  i.  v.  13.  and  c.  ii.  v.  4. 
t  Wisdom,  c.  vii.  v.  11. 


OF   THE   PRIESTHOOD.  41 

to  the  performance  of  good  works,  should  mere 
ly  enter  into  the  detail  of  the  miseries  and  the 
necessities  of  his  brethren  ;  still  how  great  is 
the  good  which  a  Priest  of  this  character  ne 
ver  fails  to  produce  among  men?  he  recon 
ciles  those  whom  variance  and  strife  had  sepa 
rated  ;  he  penetrates  the  darkness  which  shame, 
so  often,  casts  around  indigence,  and  in  re 
lieving  their  distress,  spares  those  unknown 
objects  of  charity,  evren  the  confusion  of  be 
ing  assisted ;  foundations  of  utility  and  edifi 
cation,  find  in  his  solicitude  and  zeal,  resources 
which  prevent  them  from  falling  into  decay, 
and  which  often  give  them  a  new  stability  : 
how  many  public  scandals  prevented  by  these 
means  !  how  many  opportunities  of  salvation, 
secured!  he  confirms  the  virtuous,  and  employs 
them  for  the  advantage  and  sanctification  of  his 
brethren  :  he  presides  in  all  their  holy  enter 
prises  :  he  is  himself  the  soul  of  all  the  piety 
of  a  city  or  a  parish :  he  is,  in  the  estimation 
and  in  the  hope  of  the  greater  part  of  sinners, 
the  instrument,  which  God  will,  one  day,  use 
for  their  conversion  :  he  animates  all :  he  finds 
remedies  for  every  evil  :  no  disorder  escapes 
him:  there  is  no  public  good  to  which  he  does 
not  sacrifice  himself :  no  undertaking  can  dis- 


4£  ON   THE   EXCELLENCE 

courage  nor  disgust  him :  no  sinner  appears  t«* 
him,  unworthy  of  his  zeal:  in  tine,  nothing  can. 
elude  the  ardor,  nor  withstand  the  force  and 
attractions,  of  his  charity  :  Nee  est  qui  se  ab- 
scondat  a  calore  ejus.* 

It  is  written  that  the  dead  body  of  a  man  be 
ing  casually  placed  near  the  remains  of  Eliseu* 
the  prophet,  the  dead  man  begins  immediately 
to>  be  reanimated ;.  his  eyes  winch  were  closed 
in  death,  begin  to  open;  his  tongue  is  loosed, 
and  he  comes  forth  from  the  abode  of  death,  into* 
life  and  light.     Alas!  my  brethren,  the  most  in 
fected  carcasses,  the   souls  in  which   death   and 
corruption  have  long  prevailed,  can  scarcely  ap 
proach  a  holy   Priest,    an   envoy  of  the  Lord, 
dead  to  himself,  to  the  world,  and  all  its  hopes, 
without  feeling  at  the  instant,  a  virtue  that  pro 
ceeds  from  him,  a  breath  of  life  which  begins- 
to  reanimate  them,  to  inspire  them  with  good 
desires,  to   awaken    them    from    their   lethargy, 
and   operate   in   them  the   first  fruits   of  grace 
and    salvation  :     Nee    est    qui  se   abscondat    a 
calore  ejus. 

1  said  also  the  example  :  yes3  my  brethren, 
although   a  holy  Priest    were   to    do  no  other 

*  Psal.  18.  v.  7. 


OF   THE    PRIESTHOOD.  4*1 

good  than  exhibit  the  example  of  a  regular  and 
edifying  life  ;  ahhough  he  were  merely  to  dis 
play    to    the   faithful,    p;ety,    disinterestedness* 
mortification,  modesty,  innocence,  and  sacerdo 
tal  gravity,  in  the  detail  of  his  morals ;  still  it 
is  true  of  him  that  he  is  set  up  for  the  salva 
tion   of  many.       Example,    you    know,,    is   the 
shortest  and  most  certain  way  to   persuasion : 
men  themselves  live   principally   by    imitation  : 
they  have  need  of  models,  and  it  is  to  their  sole 
influence,    that  we  may,   almost  always,    trace 
their  vices  as  well  as  their  virtues.     And  what 
a  blessing  for  them  when  God  raises  up  in  the 
midst  of   them,  a  holy  Priest,   enlightened  and 
tender,  whose  piety,  is  as  it  were,  a  spectacle  to 
angels  and  to  men !  it  is  a  perpetual  gospel  be 
fore  their  eyes,  which  answers  every  difficulty, 
and  leaves  their  transgressions  without  apokogy 
or  palliation.     If  his  example  fails  to  turn  them 
from  their  evil  ways,  at  least  it  inspires  them 
with  respect  for  virtue  ;  it  forces  them  to  con 
fess  that  there  are  still  some  truly  just  ow  earth  ; 
it  repairs  the  injury  which  worldly  pastors  do  to 
the  sanctity  of  the  priestly  character  in  public 
opinion,   and  removes  the  contempt  into  which 
it  had  fallen  by  the  indecency  of  their  morals : 
it   is  a   reply   to  the   censures   and    derisions, 


44  ON    THE    EXCELLENCE 

which  libertines  continually  extend  from  the  mi 
nisters  to  the  ministry  itself,  and,  as  it  were, 
elevates  and  honours  the  priesthood.  For,  my 
brethren,  it  is  against  us  principally,  that  the 
world  loves  to  direct  the  sharpest  arrows  of  its 
satire  and  malignity  ;  it  pardons  nothing  in  un 
faithful  pastors :  the  more  they  appear  to  esteem 
it,  and  conform  to  it,  to  become  its  partizans- 
and  apologists,  the  more  they  become  the  ob 
jects  of  its  ridicule  and  contempt.  The  world 
has  no  pity  for  a  bad  Priest;  and  as  Saint 
Isidore  says,  whereas  formerly,  the  clergy  were 
the  censors  of  people  and  of  kings,  and  a  terror 
to  the  wicked  by  the  sanctity  of  their  lives; 
the  scene  is  now  lamentably  changed ;  the  peo 
ple  is  became  the  censor  of  the  clergy,  who  fear 
its  judgment,  and  who  tremble  before  the 
Princes  and  the  great,  because  they  aspire  to 
their  favors,  and  dread  their  contempt  or  ne 
glect.  Olim  Sacerdos  populo  crat  formidabUis; 
nune  contra  populus  terrori  est  Sacerdoti.* 

In  a  word,  my  brethren,  a  holy  Priest  is  the 
greatest  gift  which  God  can  bestow  upon  men. 
What  favors  think  you,  did  he  promise  by  his 
prophet,  to  the  children  of  Israel,  if  at  last, 

*St.  Isidore.  Epist.  278. 


OF   THE    PRIESTHOOD. 


45 


they  would  be  converted  to  him  and  renounce 
all  their  prevarications  1  Was  it  the  empire  of 
nations?  the  conquest  of  the  world?  the  over 
throw  and  destruction  of  their  enemies  ?  the 
termination  of  all  the  evils  and  calamities  that 
afflicted  them?  a  land  flowing  with  milk  and 
honey?  These  magnificent  promises  he  had 
already  made  to  them,  and  they  had  not  beeu 
powerful  enough  to  restrain  them  within  the 
observance  of  the  law,  nor  prevent  them  from 
prostituting  their  homage  to  strange  gods  :  he 
therefore  passes  over  promises  so  brilliant  .and 
so  capable  of  making  an  impression,  particu 
larly  on  a  people,  who  were  almost  always  ac 
tuated  by  carnal  and  terrestrial  motives ;  but  it 
is  only  to  make  one,  yet  a  thousand  times,  more 
glorious  and  more  valuable :  be  converted,  O 
ye  children  of  Israel,  says  he,  and  return  to 
the  God  of  your  fathers,  whom  you  have  for 
saken,  and  I  will  give  you, — what,  my  brethren? 
I  will  give  you  pastors  according  to  my  own 
heart :  Convertimini  filii  revertentes  .  .  .  .  ct  dabo 
Pastor es  juxta  cor  meum.* 

Raise  up   then,    in   thy  church,  O   my  God., 
faithful   Priests,  pastors,  according  to  thy  own 

*  Jeremiah,  c.  iii.  vv.  14.  15. 


46  ON    THE   EXCELLENCE 

heart:  never  cease  to  form  them  in  this  holy 
place,  in  which  thou  hast  for  so  long  a  time 
diffused -the  first  spirit  of  the  priesthood:  draw 
from  this  assembly  vessels  of  election,  to  bear 
thy  name  before  kings  and  nations  ;  and  in  se 
parating  them  for  the  work  of  the  ministry,  do 
thou  prepare  them  to  sanctify  those,  to  whom 
thou  sendest  them.  We  do  not  ask  of  thee,  O 
my  God,  the  cessation  of  the  evils  that  afflict, 
of  the  wars  and  troubles  that  disquiet  and  ter 
rify,  us;  propitious  seasons;  the  return  of  abun 
dance  and  prosperity  ;  give  us  holy  Priests,  and 
with  them  thou  wilt  give  us  all  things  :  Positits 
m  resurrectionem  multorum. 

And  in  order  my  brethren,  to  gather  -the 
entire  fruit  of  this  discourse,  let  us  reduce  what 
has  been  said,  to  this  single  reflection  :  I  can 
neither  destroy,  nor  save,  myself,  alone  :  from 
the  moment  that  I  have  been  placed  in  the  holy 
ministry,  and  clothed  with  the  Christian  priest 
hood,  I  must  be  either  a  scourge  in  the  hands 
of  God,  on  the  wickedness  of  men,  or  a  bles 
sing  sent  down  from  heaven  for  their  happi 
ness  :  I  must  either  resemble  the  dragon  of  the 
Apocalypse,  that  hideous  and  devouring  beast, 
which  drew  with  him,  in  his  fall,  a  third  part 


OF  THE   PRIESTHOOD. 


of  the  stars  of  heaven  to  the  earth  ;*  or  the 
true  serpent  of  brassf  Jesus  Christ,  who  being 
raised  from  the  earth  attracted  all  thing's  to  him 
self;  healed  the  wounds,  and  took  away  the 
calamities  of  his  people  :  I  am  now  placed  be 
tween  these  two  destinies :  Positus  in  ruinam 
£t  in  resurrectionem  multorum  in  Israel. 

What  a  powerful  motive  to  fidelity  in  all  my 
duties,  to  vigilance  in  every  part  of  my  con 
duct,  to  zeal  in  my  ministry,  to  fear  and  ter 
ror  on  the  subject  of  my  state,  to  the  renova 
tion  of  the  spirit  of  niy  calling:  what  a  motive 
of  hope,  of  dread,  .and  of  confusion,  in  tlie  ex 
pectation  of  the  coming  of  the  sovereign  pastor,, 
Christ  Jesus,  who  will  demand  of  me  a-n  ac 
count  of  my  stewardship,  and  present  to  me, 
the  souls  whom  he  had  entrusted  to  my  care, 
either  for  my  condemnation,  if  they  have  perish 
ed/  or  as  my  ;glory  and  crown,  if  they  have 
found  life  and  salvation  through  my  ministry-, 
Amen. 

*"Apoc,  c.  xii.  v.  4.         t  Numbers,  c.  Xxi.  v.  &• 


ON    THE    ESTRANGEMENT    OF 


A  DISCOURSE 

ON   THE 

ESTRANGEMENT  OF  THE  CLERGY 
FROM  THE  WORLD. 


Tulerunt  ilium  in  Jerusalem,  ut  sisterent  eum  Do 
mino,  Sicut  scriptum  est:  Quia  omne  masculinum 
adaperiens  vulvam,  sanctum  Domino  vocabitur. 

They  carried  the  child  to  Jerusalem  to  present  him  to 
the  Lord.  As  it  is  written  in  the  law  of  the  Lord: 
That  every  male  opening  the  womb,  shall  be  called 
holy  to  the  Lord. 

LUKE.  chap.  ii.  verses  22.  23. 


MY  brethren,  it  was  written  in  the  law,  that 
every  first-born  of  the  Jews,  should  be  conse 
crated  to  the  Lord :  that  is  to  say,  should  be, 
like  Samuel,  dedicated  to  his  worship,  destined 
to  the  service  of  the  temple,  separated  from 
profane  uses,  in  a  word,  should  be  holy  to  the 
Lord,  and  even  sacrificed  at  the  foot  of  his  altar, 
as  a  sacred  first  fruit,  over  which  the  world  had 
no  longer  any  right,  but  which  God  had  re- 


THE    CLERGY  FROM  THE  WORLD.  49 

served  to  himself,  and  which  they  were  obliged 
to  redeem  and  replace  by  another  offering1.* 

Jesus  Christ,,  the  first-born  among  his  bre 
thren,  prefigured  by  the  first-born  of  the  chil 
dren  of  Israel,  presents  himself  to-day,  to  ac 
complish  this  law,  to  fulfil  its  figure  and  un 
fold  its  mystery.  His  consecration  to  the  altar, 
is  the  source  and  the  model  of  ours ;  we  are, 
as  it  were,  the  first-born  of  the  new  covenant, 
the  first  fruits  of  the  faithful,  which  the  church 
consecrates  to  the  Lord  for  all  the  rest  of  her 
members ;  and  in  this  point,  we  have  succeed 
ed  to  the  destiny  of  the  first-born  among  the 
Jews.  Like  to  them  we  are,  at  a  tender  age, 
presented  in  the  temple,  separated  from  profane 
uses,  and  devoted  to  the  altar.  Like  to  them, 
the  world  has  no  longer  any  right  over  us,  and 
we  are  reserved  to  be  offered  and  sacrificed  to 
the  Lord.  The  only  difference  is,  that  their 
consecration  and  sacrifice  were  redeemed  by 
another  offering,  as  being  only  the  figure  of  the 
consecration  of  Jesus  Christ,  whereas,  ours 
being  the  continuation  of  his,  is  real  and  per 
petual,  and  cannot  therefore  be  ransomed  nor 
replaced  by  any  other  victim. 

*  Exodus,  c.  xiii. 

E 


50  ON    THE   ESTRANGEMENT    OF 

Now  the  principal  character  of  this  consecra 
tion  is,  to  separate  us  from  all  profane  inter 
course,  to  dedicate  us  so  entirely  to  the  altar  and 
its  worship,  that  it  is  no  longer  lawful  for  us  to 
quit  the  sanctuary,  to  return  to  the  tents,  or  par 
ticipate  in  the  works,  of  sinners;  and  to  estrange 
us  from  the  world,  as  from  a  place,  in  which  the 
sanctity  of  our  consecration  cannot  appear  with 
propriety,  nor  remain  long  without  profanation. 

I  am  aware  that  the  manners  of  the  clergy 
must  not  be  too  repulsive,  nor  too  austere:  call 
ed,  as  we  are,  to  sanctify  sinners,  we  must,  after 
the  example  of  Christ,  take  upon  us,  as  it  were,, 
their  resemblance,  and  appear  almost  clothed 
in  their  infirmities :  destined  to  be  the  visible 
angels,  by  whom  they  are  to  be  conducted,  we 
must,  like  the  celestial  guide  of  the  young  To 
bias,  appear,  in  a  certain  sense,  to  imitate  their 
customs  and  their  manners,  but  whilst  we  seem 
to  eat  and  drink  with  them,  we  must  in  secret 
nourish  our  piety  and  our  faith  with  an  invisible 
food,  which  cannot  be  seen  by  men.* 

I  know  that  our  ministry  obliges  us  to  min 
gle  with  the  rest  of  men  ;  that,  as  the  Apostle 


*I  seemed  indeed  to  eat  and  to  drink  with  you  : 
but  I  use  an  invisible  meat  and  drink,  which  can 
not  be  seen  by  men.  Tobias,  c.  xii.  v.  19. 


THE    CLERGY    FROM    THE   WORLD.  51 

says,  we  must  go  out  of  this  world,,  if  we  would 
break  off  all  intercourse  with  sinners  ;  and  that 
the  grace  of  the  priesthood  enables  us  to  con 
quer,  not  by  flight^  but  in  combat.  I  know,  in 
fine,  that  even  under  the  Jewish  dispensation., 
the  sacerdotal  tribe,  was  spread  and  dispersed 
among  the  other  twelve,  to  teach  us,  it  would 
appear,  that  the  intermixture  of  the  clergy  and 
people  is  necessary,  and  that  to  hold  up  to  men,, 
the  light  of  a  good  example,  is  not  the  least  of 
our  sacred  obligations. 

But  it  is  not  the  charity  which  ventures 
abroad  to  be  active,  useful  and  edifying,  that  I 
wish  to  combat,  but  that  love  of  the  world 
which  draws  us  from  retirement,  renders  us 
unprofitable,  and  which,  whilst  it  dissipates  our 
selves,  scandalizes  the  faithful :  that  violent  in 
clination  which  renders  the  sanctuary  insipid, 
tears  us  from  its  most  sacred  occupations,  and 
drags  us  into  the  tumult  and  dangers  of  the 
world  :  in  a  word,  that  idle,  useless,  worldly 
life,  which  leads  us  from  dissipation  to  dissi 
pation,  which  attaches  us  to  the  assemblies  of 
sinners,  to  their  maxims,  their  pleasures,  their 
inclinations  ;  and  which  leads  us  from  the  de 
corum  of  the  world  to  its  amusements,  from 
amusements  to  dangers,  from  dangers  to  crime. 


52  ON   THE    ESTRANGEMENT    OF 

Now  I  say  that  nothing  can  be  more  incompa 
tible  with  the  gravity  and  sanctity  of  our  state, 
or  with  the  spirit  of  our  ministry,  than  this 
life  of  dissipation,  of  worldliness,  of  intercourse 
and  of  unprofitableness,  however  authorized  by 
the  prevalence  of  example,  and  however  palli 
ated  by  the  plea  or  the  appearance  of  inno 
cence.  Let  us  prove  this  interesting  truth  : 
it  is  of  itself  sufficiently  important  to  constitute 
the  entire  subject  of  this  instruction. 

FIRST     REFLECTION. 

The  spirit  of  our  ministry,  is  a  spirit  of 
separation,  of  prayer,  of  weeping,  of  labor,  of 
zeal,  of  knowledge,  of  piety  :  remark  these  va 
rious  characters.  Now  they  are  all  lost  and 
extinguished  amidst  the  bustle  and  distraction 

o 

incident   to   engagements  and  connexions  alto 
gether  worldly. 

It  is  first  a  spirit  of  separation :  I  have  al 
ready  remarked,  that  the  sacerdotal  unction 
sanctifies  and  sets  us  apart :  it  withdraws  us 
from  the  public  functions  of  society,  and  dedi 
cates  us  for  ever,  to  the  service  of  the  altar,  and 
the  worship  of  the  Lord.  From  the  moment 
in  which  we  have  been  anointed  Priests,  we 
cease,  as  it  were,  to  be  citizens  and  members 


THE    CLERGY    FROM    THE   WORLD.  53 

of  the  commonwealth :  though  united  with  other 
men  by  those  public  duties  that  bind  us  to  the 
state,  we  form  a  separate  people,  a  holy  nation, 
a  royal  priesthood  :  we  take  upon  ourselves 
more  sacred  engagements,  we  contract  new  re 
lations  and  begin  to  live  under  other  laws.  It  is 
not  that  we  are  exempt  from  the  obedience  and 
submission  due  to  the  established  authority  of 
our  country :  on  the  contrary,  we  should  be  an 
example  to  the  rest  of  the  faithful,  by  being 
the  first  to  give  to  Cesar  what  belongs  to  Ce 
sar  :  we  cease  to  be  citizens,  merely  as  far  as 
regards  the  public  functions,  which  the  state 
demands  of  all  her  members :  the  sacred  myste 
ries  become  our  only  functions  :  the  temples  of 
religion  our  only  habitations:  the  altar  our  post 
of  honor :  the  works  of  piety  and  of  charity, 
our  tribute  and  our  public  burdens. 

It  is  for  this  reason  that  the  civil  laws  do  not 
call  upon  us,  for  the  ordinary  service  or  the 
necessities  of  the  state,  nor  include  us  in  the 
general  mass  of  society  :  they  regard  us  as  se 
parated  from  the  body  of  citizens,  and  disbur 
dened  of  those  duties  and  obligations  which 
constitute  the  principle  of  civil  life :  they  resign, 
as  it  were,  the  right  they  had  to  us,  and  leave 
us  entirely  to  a  more  holy  and  more  august  des- 


54  ON    THE    ESTRANGEMENT    OF 

tination :  they  respect  the  profound  recollection, 
which  our  functions  require;  the  mystic  seal  by 
which  we  are  consecrated  to  Jesus  Christ,  and 
they  leave  us  to  enjoy  a  sacred  leisure,  in  order 
that  by  our  prayers  and  oblations,  we  may  com 
pensate  those  other  services  which  we  fail  to 
render  to  the  commonwealth. 

Every  thing  then,  in  a  Priest,  should  be  holy 
and  removed  from  common  pursuits:  his  tongue, 
according   to    the    expression  of    the    Apostle, 
should  speak  only  of  the   thing's  of  God,  and 
even  trifles  profane  it,  as  ordinary  meats  defile 
a  consecrated  vessel :  his  hands  should  no  longer 
serve,  but  to  offer  up  gifts  and  sacrifices:   the 
sports,  the  amusements,    the  works  of  men,  de 
grade  them  from  their  sanctity,  and  tarnish  the 
splendor  of  their  unction :    his  eyes  should  rest 
only  upon  religious  objects,  the  temple,  the  al 
tar,  and  the  sacred  mysteries  :    if  they  wander 
elsewhere,  they  forfeit  the  right  of  penetrating 
into  the  tabernacle,  and  seeing  face  to  face,  the 
glory  and  majesty  of  the  God  who  has  chosen 
it  for  his  residence.     In  fine,  the  whole  person 
of  a   Priest  is  as  a  religious  spectacle,    which 
should  ever  be  accompanied  and  surrounded  by- 
respect,  by  gravity  and  decorum,  that  it  may  awe 
every  beholder  into  reverence  and  veneration. 


THE    CLERGY    FROM    THE    WORLD.  55 

Hence,  my  brethren,  when  the  conversion  of 
the  Cesars  and  the  great  increase  of  the  faith 
ful  had  introduced  into  Christianity  before  so 
pure,  the  relaxations,  the  pomp,  and  the  vices 
of  the  world  ;  and  when  the  society  of  chris- 
tians  becoming  thus  more  extended  and  con- 

o 

sequently  more  corrupt,  was  no  longer  a  safe 
asylum  for  virtue,  the  clergy  sought  refuge  and 
security  under  the  cover  of  the  episcopal  resi 
dence  ;  the  eagles  began  to  assemble  round  the 
body  ;*  Africa,  the  East  and  the  West,  beheld 
ecclesiastical  communities  arise,  where,  under 
the  guidance  of  the  chief  pastor,  the  ministers 
of  religion  separated  from  the  world,  learned  in 
their  concealment,  how  to  appear  in  public  with 
advantage  and  edification  to  the  people. 

Establishments  for  the  education  of  the  cler 
gy,  have  succeeded  to  these  first  communities. 
In  the  few  years  of  probation  and  of  seclusion, 
passed  in  those  retreats,  it  has  been  the  intention 
of  the  church,  to  form  the  candidates  for  the 
priesthood  to  such  a  love  of  retirement  and 
recollection,  as  may  for  ever  separate  them,  at 
least  in  heart,  from  the  world.  But  is  not  even 
this  short  period  of  retreat  and  of  separation  a 

*  Matthew,  c.  xxiv.  v.  28.  Luke.  c.  xvii.  v.  37. 


56  ON   THE   ESTRANGEMENT   OP 

burden  to  you?  Is  not  this  trial  for  you,  the 
result  of  necessity,  rather  than  of  choice  ?  And 
do  you  ever  feel,  or  say  with  the  Royal  Prophet 
to  the  Lord,  that  a  single  day  spent  in  the  repose 
and  the  innocence  of  his  house,  is  better  than 
years  passed  in  the  tabernacles  of  sinners  ?  Were 
your  seclusion  not  a  matter  of  necessity ;  were 
there  no  propriety,  no  interested  hopes,  no  laws, 
no  customs  to  compel  you  to  it ;  were  your  in 
clinations  alone  to  decide  on  your  conduct,  what 
choice  would  you  make?  Is  it  to  you  an  afflic 
tion  to  return  to  the  world  and  mix  in  the 
society  of  men ;  to  be  again  witness  of  those 
disorders  which  you  should  never  behold  without 
the  liveliest  sorrow  ?  or  rather  are  not  your  hap 
piest  days  those  which  bring  you  again  into  the 
midst  of  former  scenes  and  former  dangers  ?  It 
is  written  that  the  greater  part  of  the  spies  of 
Moses,  having  returned  from  their  expedition, 
omitted  nothing  to  disgust  the  people  of  God 
with  the  land  of  Chanaan  :  it  is,  said  they,  an  un- 
healthful  land  which  devoureth  its  inhabitants:* 
the  barrenness  and  the  security  of  the  wilderness, 
are  infinitely  preferable  to  the  milk  and  honey 
which  flow  through  its  plains.  Is  such  your 

*  Numbers,  c.  13.  v.  33. 


THE   CLERGY    FROM    THE   WORLD.  57 

language  when  you  return  from  the  world  to  the 
desert?  You  come  back  satisfied  and  intoxicated 
with  its  pleasures :  you  carry  even  into  this  holy 
desert,  the  fruits  of  that  destructive  land  ;  you 
dwell  with  rapture  on  its  delights  and  advan 
tages,,  and  inspire  those  who  hear  you,  with  the 
desire  of  possessing  them :  the  most  precious 
portion  of  your  time,  and  the  most  sacred  exer 
cises  of  your  retirement  are  passed  in  thinking 
on  them  :  and  thus  a  single  day  which  brings 
you  again  into  the  world,,  deranges  and  dissi 
pates  you,  renders  all  the  duties  of  this  holy 
place  entirely  insipid,  fills  you  with  disgust, 
aggravates  your  restraints,  dries  up  your  heart, 
and  destroys  in  a  few  hours  the  fruit  of  a  whole 
year  of  your  probation.  Judge  then  whether  you 
are  likely  to  preserve  in  the  midst  of  the  world, 
the  love  of  recollection  and  of  separation,  when 
you  lose  it  in  the  very  bosom  of  retreat. 

Yet  as  the  world  itself  no  longer  esteems  you 
to  belong  to  it;  as  your  goods,  your  lands,  your 
very  person,  are,  in  reference  to  the  state,  as  a 
thing  that  is  not ;  that  is  to  say,  as  they  are 
withdrawn  from  the  condition  of  those  things 
which  contribute  to  the  movements  and  the  agi 
tations  of  civil  society,  whatever  still  binds  you 
to  the  world,  except  the  salvation  of  your  bre- 


58  ON    THE    ESTRANGEMENT    OF 

thren,  and  the  august  functions  of  the  ministry, 
humiliates    and    degrades    you;    obscures    and 
profanes   your  consecration,    and  again    places 
you  under  the  yoke  and    the  ignominy  ot  the 
age.     The  vessels  and  the  ornaments  of  the  altar 
can  no  longer  serve  for  profane  purposes  ;  to  use 
them  so,    would   be  a  crime   that  would   tlchle 
their  consecration  :  a  Priest  then,  who  is  conse 
crated  to  God,  in  a  manner  far  more  holy,  more 
intimate,    and    more   indelible  than   the  sacred 
vases  or  the  gold  and  the  linen  of  the  sanctuary, 
stains  and  defiles  his  consecration  still  more,  if 
he  employ  his  person,  bis  talents,  his  mind  or 
his  heart  in  the  works  of  death,  and  the  profane 
uses   of  the  world.     Holy  find  awful  doctrine, 
how  little  art  thou  known !  the  ministers  of  the 
altar,  are  at  the  present  day,  the  first  to  take  a 
part  in  the  affairs  and  the  agitations  of  the  age. 
In  vain  does  the   Apostle  admonish  them,  that 
those  who  have  enrolled  themselves  among  the 
soldiers  of  Jesus  Christ,  should  no  more  return 
to  the  occupations  and  the  embarrassments  of 
the  world :  they  are  the  principal  actors  in  all  its 
scenes  ;    the   temporal  interests  of  families  are 
entrusted  to  their  care  ;  they  are  to  be  seen  at 
the   head   of   the    intrigues,    the   disputes,    the 
quarrels,  the  animosities  of  worldlings :  the  men 


THE    CLERGY    FROM    THE    WORLD.  59 

of  heaven  are  become  men  of  earth  :  the  dis 
pensers  of  the  mysteries  of  God,  are  become 
the  ministers  of  human  passions  :  those  who  are 
charged  with  the  spiritual  interests  of  the  people, 
would  consider  it  a  disgrace  to  be  occupied  about 
their  eternal  welfare,  and  they  sacrifice  the  most 
imperative  and  honorable  duties,  to  the  vain 
glory  of  directing  the  temporal  and  transitory 
concerns  of  men  :  they  leave  to  meaner  talents 
the  care  of  those  souls  for  whom  Christ  died, 
and  imagine  that  in  devoting  themselves  to  of 
fices  which  have  nothing  great,  but  the  names 
and  the  passions  of  those  by  whom  they  are 
filled,  they  only  reserve  themselves  for  more 
dignified  and  more  illustrious  functions.  It  is 
from  these  scenes  of  intrigue  and  ajitation,  that 
they  ascend  to  the  altar,  with  all  the  tumult 
and  distraction  of  human  passion,  instead  of 
that  spirit  of  recollection  and  of  prayer,  which 
should  ever  precede  and  accompany  our  ap 
proach  to  the  holy  mysteries:  and  this  is  my 
second  reflection. 

SECOND    REFLECTION. 

In  effect,  in  the  second  place,  the  spirit  of 
our  ministry  is  a  spirit  of  prayer :  prayer  is  the 
ornament  of  the  priesthood,  the  most  essential 


60  ON    THE    ESTRANGEMENT    OF 

duty  of  the  Priest,  the  very  soul  of  all  his  func 
tions.  Without  prayer,  a  Priest  is  of  no  use 
in  the  ministry,  and  of  no  advantage  to  the 
faithful  :  he  sows,  and  God  gives  no  increase : 
he  exhorts,  and  his  words  are  as  the  sounding 
brass :  he  immolates  the  victim  of  propitiation, 
and  draws  down  no  blessing  upon  the  sacred 
offerings  :  he  recites  the  praises  of  the  Lord, 
but  his  heart  is  far  from  him,  and  he  honors 
him  merely  with  the  extremity  of  his  lips.  In 
a  word,  a  Priest  without  prayer.,  is  but  a  phan 
tom  without  soul  and  without  life  :  the  most 
sacred,  most  fruitful  and  most  spiyitual  of  his 
functions,  are  but  as  the  mechanical  movements 
of  a  mere  machine.  It  is  then  prayer  alone, 
that  gives  efficacy  and  success  to  his  various 
duties,  and  he  ceases,  as  it  were,  to  be  a  pub 
lic  minister,  from  the  moment  that  he  ceases 
to  pray :  prayer  is  the  only  consolation  of  his 
labors;  and  his  functions  become  for  him,  as 
the  yoke  of  the  mercenary,  as  so  many  hard  and 
overwhelming  tasks,  if  prayer  does  not  sweeten 
their  bitterness,  relieve  their  pain,  nor  solace 
their  failure  of  success. 

But  prayer  supposes  a  mind  pure  and  free 
from  those  vivid  and  dangerous  images,  which 
defile  the  soul  or  obscure  its  lights:  it  sup- 


THE   CLERGY    FROM    THE   WORLD.  61 

poses  a  mind  stored  with  holy  thoughts,  and 
familiarized  to  the  meditation  of  God's  law ;  a 
mind  which  is,,  as  it  were,,  thrown  out  of  its 
proper  place,  by  being  compelled  to  turn  its 
attention  to  the  pursuits  and  frivolities  of  the 
age,  and  which,  the  moment  it  is  set  at  liberty, 
returns  to  the  remembrance  of  those  eternal 
truths,  from  which  it  had  been  diverted.  Pray 
er  supposes  a  tranquil  heart,  whose  liveliest 
feeling,  is  a  sentiment  of  the  love  of  God,  and 
of  gratitude  for  his  benefits ;  a  heart  accustom 
ed  to  relish  the  things  of  heaven ;  a  heart, 
timid,  sensitive  and  vigilant,  always  on  its 
guard  against  external  impressions ;  always  oc 
cupied  in  correcting  the  weaknesses,  and  repair 
ing  the  imperfections,  inseparable  from  mail's 
condition,  and  always  watchful  to  allow  itself 
nothing  that  might  cool  the  ardor  of  the  tender 
and  familiar  intercourse  which  it  has  with  its 
God.  Behold  what  the  spirit  of  prayer  demands 
of  you. 

Now  combine,  if  you  can,  these  dispositions 
with  dissipated  and  worldly  habits  :  see,  whether 
on  quitting  a  company  and  discourse,  in  which 
your  imagination  has  been  led  over  a  series  of 
public  intrigues,  over  the  pretensions  and  the 
hopes  of  men ;  in  which  you  have  been  let  into 


62  ON    THE    ESTRANGEMENT    OF 

the  secret  interests  which  unite  or  divide  those 
who  are  hiHi  in  authority,  or  who  occupy  the 

o  ^ 

most  distinguished  stations  in  your  neighbour 
hood  ;  in  a  word,  in  which  you  have  been  en 
tertained  on  whatever  is  most  dazzling  and 
contagious  in  the  figure  of  this  world:  seer 
whether  on  departing  from  such  society,  you 
will  find  yourself  disposed  to  collect  yourself  at 
the  foot  of  the  crucifix,  and  there  with  a  head 
still  replete  with  profane  images,  meditate  on 
those  eternal  truths  which  frequently  present 
nothing  but  clouds  to  the  purest  eye,  and  which 
the  inos'  faithful  heart,  pressed  down  by  the  sole 
weight  of  what  is  earthly  in  man,  finds  it  often 
times,  difficult  to  relish,  t  What  do  I  say?  see, 
if  on  quitting  a  profane  assembly,  in  which 
you  have  been  struck  with  a  thousand  indecent 
spectacles,  and  a  thousand  dangerous  objects ; 
where  together  with  the  seeds  of  all  the  pas 
sions,  you  have  suffered  to  sink  into  your 
heart,  the  sorrowful  matter  of  a  thousand  temp 
tations,  of  a  thousand  impure  recollections  that 
will  trouble  the  peace  of  your  soul,  will  defile 
or  at  least  cloud  your  innocence,  and  by  their 
poisonous  impressions,  destroy  whatever  little 
still  remained  of  relish  or  sensibilitv  for  the 
things  of  heaven,  for  the  sacred  observances,  and 


THE   CLERGY    FROM    THE   WORLD.  63 

the  important  duties  of  the  priesthood  :  see, 
whether  you  can  pass  from  those  haunts  of  pro- 
faneness  to  the  foot  of  the  altar,  to  pray  for 
yourself  and  for  your  people ;  to  cool  the 
wrath,  and  disarm  the  anger  of  the  Lord ;  to 
deplore  the  wanderings  and  the  vices  of  a 
world  which  you  have  been  just  applauding, 
and  to  treat  the  holy  mysteries  with  that  si- 
fence  of  the  senses,  that  profound  recollection, 
that  religious  awe,  that  majestic  gravity,  that 
calm  of  the  heart  and  of  the  mind,  which  you 
have  just  forfeited,  and  which  is  notwithstand 
ing  so  absolutely  indispensable  for  the  right 
performance  of  functions  so  formidable  and  so 
diviner  Alas !  you  will  carry  to  the  altar  the 
amusements,  the  trifles,  the  illusions,  the  dan 
gerous  objects  of  the  world,  in  the  midst  of 
which  you  live  ;  you  will  insult  the  presence 
of  the  tremendous  mysteries,  by  indecent 
images;  your  heated  imagination  will  tear  you 
from  the  altar,  and  drag  you  back  into  the  bus 
tle  and  society  where  you  have  left  your  heart : 
your  prayers,  even  in  the  retirement  of  the  sanc 
tuary,  will  be  but  a  review  of  your  pleasures  ; 
your  mind  in  the  performance  of  them,  will 
converse  more  with  the  world  than  with  God  ; 
and  not  only  will  your  office  become  unprofitable 


64  ON    THE    ESTRANGEMENT   OF 

to  yourself  and  to  your  brethren  ;  and  not  only 
in  offering  up  the  holy  victim  of  propitiation, 
will  you  fail  to  soften  his  anger  against  them 
or  yourself,  but  you  will  exasperate  it,  and 
draw  down  new  scourges;  and  your  ministry, 
which  should  be  a  ministry  of  reconciliation 
and  of  life,  will  become  a  ministry  of  death, 
of  hatred  and  of  perdition.  You,  yourself  will 
soon  experience  it  :  you  shall  be  the  first  to 
feel  the  arrows  of  the  indignation  of  the  Lord. 
As  soon  as  the  world  shall  have  extinguished  in 
you  the  spirit  of  prayer,  the  tender  and  delight 
ful  intercourse  of  the  soul  with  God,  will  be 
for  you  turned  into  an  intercourse  of  mere  de 
cency;  as  it  will  be  uneasy  and  troublesome, 
you  will  shorten  its  duration;  by  little  and  lit 
tle,  you  will  lose  all  relish  for  it,  and  abandon 
the  practice;  you  will  become  dry,  will  wither 
and  fall  ;  and  you,  who  should  have  wept  be 
tween  the  porch  and  the  altar  over  the  sins  of 
your  brethren,  will  be  no  longer  touched  by 
your  own  ;  your  functions  themselves  will  har 
den  you :  in  participating  in  the  errors  and 
the  pleasures  of  the  world,  you  will  justify  and 
uphold  them,  and  so  far  from  afflicting  your 
piety  and  enkindling  your  zeal,  they  will  but 


THE   CLERGY    FROM    THE    WORLD.  63 

gratify  your  taste  and  corrupt  your  innocence : 
and  this  is  the   third  reflection. 

THIRD    REFLECTION. 

The  spirit  of  our  ministry  is  a  spirit  of  weep- 
ing:  we  are  the  angels  of  peace,,  mentioned  by 
the  Prophet,,  who  should  bitterly  weep  because 
the  ways  of  justice  are  made  desolate,  and  no 
one  walketh,  any  more,  in  the  path  that  conducts 
to  life ;  because  the  covenant  is  become  useless,, 
and  that  the  Lord  seems  to  have  rejected  his 
people :  Angeli  pads  amare  Jlebunt :  dissipate 
sunt  vice,  cessavit  transiens  per  semitcun  :  irritum 
factum  est  pactum:  projccit  civiiates :  non  re- 
putavit  homines.* 

Yes,  my  brethren,  we  ought  to  be  men  of 
sorrow,  to  weep  without  ceasing  between  the 
porch  and  the  altar,  over  the  scandals  that  dis 
honor  the  church  and  expose  her  to  the  derisions 
of  the  impious :  in  a  word,  the  spirit  of  our 
ministry  is  that  spirit  which  asketh  for  the  saints 
with  ineffable  groanings.f  Samuel,  says  the  sa-r 
cred  page,  after  the  death  of  Saul,  retired  from 
public  life  and  spent  the  rest  of  his  days  in  be 
wailing  the  mournful  destiny  of  that  unhappy 

*  Isaiah,  c.  xxxiii.  vv.  7.  9.       f  Rom.  c.  viii.  v.  23. 

F 


66  ON   THE   ESTRANGEMENT    OF 

prince.      Jesus  Christ  the  prince  and  the  model 
of  pastors,    seeing  the  blindness  and  obduracy 
of  Jerusalem,  wept  over  the  approaching  ruin 
of  that  unfortunate  city :  he  could  not  restrain 
his  tears  at  the  spectacle  of  the  dead  body  of 
Lazarus,   in   \vhom  he  beheld  the   figure   of  a 
guilty  soul,  long  dead  in  his  sight.    Our  bowels, 
like  those  of  the  Apostle,  should  be  moved  at  the 
miseries  and  the  disorders  of  our  brethren  ;  we 
ought  to  bear  towards  them  the  heart  of  a  mo 
ther.     Like  the  true  mother  mentioned    in  the 
judgment  of   Solomon,    we  should  feel  all  our 
tenderness  awakened,    and  our  blood  agitated, 
when  we  see  the   prince  of  darkness   ready   to 
deprive  the  children  of  the  church,  of  the  life 
of  grace,  and  divide  them  between  the  world 
and  Jesus  Christ.    No,  my  brethren,  as  long  as 
there  shall  be  sinners  on  the  earth,  sorrow  and 
mourning  will  be  the  portion  of  the  Priest :  as 
long  as  the  children  of  Israel  in  the  plain,  oc 
cupied  in  revelry  and  dancing,  shall  forget  the 
God  of  their  Fathers,  and  like  fools,  prostitute 
their  homage  to  a  golden  calf,  so  long  shall  the 
true  Moses,  on  the  mountain,  tear  his  garments 
and  rend  his  heart  before  the  Lord,  and  offer 
himself  to  be  an  anathema  for  his  brethren  :  the 
tears  of  the  Priest  should  be  as  a  continual  ex- 


THE    CLERGY    FROM    THE    WORLD.  6? 

piation  for  the  sins  of  the  people.  The  world 
shall  rejoice,  says  Christ,  to  his  apostles :  the 
children  of  the  age  will  run  dancing  and  re 
joicing  towards  the  abyss ;  smiles  and  sports 
shall  be  their  portion,  but  sorrow  shall  be  yours ; 
the  world,  in  the  midst  of  which  I  leave  you, 
will  ever  be  for  you  a  spectacle  of  grief  and  of 
fomentation  ;  and  even  although  it  were  not  to 
persecute  you,  although  crosses  and  gibbets  did 
not  await  you  in  it,  still  would  its  corruption 
alone  compel  you  to  pass  your  days  in  it,  in 
mourning  and  weeping :  Mundus  gaudebit  vos 
autem  contristabimini.  * 

Now  can  you  unite  this  spirit  of  sorrow  and 
of  weeping  with  the  intercourse  and  the  dan 
gerous  follies  of  worldly  societies?  upon  what, 
Jet  me  ask  you,  do  the  thoughts  and  the  most 
serious  occupations  of  the  world,  turn  ?  upon 
pleasures  of  which  you  must  be  the  witness,  the 
approver  or  the  accomplice,  if  you  frequent  such 
assemblies.  Although  you  were  merely  to  wit 
ness  them  ;  yet  can  a  Priest  familiarize  his  eyes 
to  the  sight  of  objects  which  ought  to  pierce  his 
heart?  can  he  make  a  recreation  of  such  objects? 
The  first  doctors  of  the  church  interdicted  the 

*John.  c.  x\i.  v.  20. 


68  ON    THE    ESTRANGEMENT    OF 

faUhful  from  the  shows  of  the  gladiators,  because 
they  did  not  believe  that  disciples  of  the  meek 
ness  and  the  charity  of  Christ,  could  innocently 
feed  their  eyes  with  the  blood  and  death  of  those 
wretches,  or  take  a  cruel  pleasure  in  a  spectacle, 
which  ought  rather   to  afflict  their  piety,   and 
make  them   deplore  the   hard  fate   and   eternal 
ruin  of  these  miserable  victims.     But,  of  such 
mournful  objects,    you,    a   Priest,   a   pastor   of 
souls  and  a  co-operator  with  Christ  for  their  sal 
vation,  are  not  ashamed  to  make  an  amusement : 
you    behold   with   pleasure    your  brethren    pe 
rishing  and  arming    each  other  for  mutual  de 
struction  :  you  see  them  inflict  mortal  wounds  by 
indecent  and  lascivious  glances,  carrying  poison 
and  death  into  the  hearts  of  one  another ;  and 
tearing  each  other  in  pieces  with  the  fangs  of 
the  most  malignant  detraction  ;  and  yet  this  mi 
serable  carnage  amuses  you,  and  amidst  scenes 
that  ought  to  make  you  weep  tears  of  blood, 
you  give  yourself  to  enjoyment,  and  spend  the 
most  delightful  hours  of  your  life. 

But  you  will  not  be  content  to  be  a  simple 
spectator ;  you  will  applaud  what  passes,  for 
you  cannot  mingle  in  the  society  of  worldlings, 
to  be  the  eternal  censor  of  their  conduct,  or  to 
poison  their  pleasures  by  a  sad  and  austere  coun- 


THE    CLERGY    FROM    THE    WORLD.  69 

tenance  ;  advice  would  not  be  there,  in  its  pro 
per   place,  nor  can  you  have  any  just  title  to 
reprehend  amusements  which  you  constantly  fre 
quent  :  they   would  have  a  right  to  say  to  you,, 
why  do  you  come  amongst  us?  this  is  not  your 
place  :  why  should  you  be  so  assiduous  an  at 
tendant  on  pleasures,  which  you  deem  so  worthy 
of   blame?  it  is  vain  to  pretend  to   hate  that, 
without  which,  it  appears,  that  you  cannot  be 
happy :  absence  from  these  scenes  would  better 
become  you,  than  censures.     Now,   not  to  con 
demn  is  to  consent,  says  the   Apostle,  to  their 
works  of  darkness  ;  it  is  to  approve  them.     But 
you  will  go  still  farther ;  you  will  participate  in 
them  and  finally  you   too  will  appear  upon  the 
scene.     We  do  not  hold   out  long  against  those 
practices,    which   form,    as   it   were,  the  entire 
groundwork  of    those   societies   which    we  fre 
quent.    We  wish  to  be  like  every  body  else;  we 
grow  weary  of  being  left  alone,  and  we  can  no 
longer  bear  to  appear  selfish  or  singular.     The 
complaisance   of    to-day   becomes    an    occasion 
to-morrow;  it   quickly  changes   to  inclination: 
thus  will  you  suffer  yourself  to  be  dragged  along, 
and    having    long    accustomed  the   sanctity   of 
your   character,  to  the  sight  of  the  abuses  and 
the  disorders  of  the  world,  you  will  familiarize 


70  ON    THE    ESTARANGEMENT    OF 

it  to  those  abuses  and  those  disorders  themselves. 
The  people  of  God  soon  learned  to  imitate  the 
manners  of  the  Chanaanites,  after  they  had  con 
tracted  with  that  people,  those  relations  and  (hat 
familiarity  which  Moses  had  forbidden.  Already 
that  relish  for  the  world,  which  leads  us  to  seek 
its  society,  is  but  a  secret  desire  to  imitate  it; 
we  are  already  disposed  to  live  as  it  lives,  when 
we  cannot  be  happy  without  it ;  conformity  of 
disposition  is  the  ordinary  cement  of  friendship, 
and  we  are  friendly  to  the  world,  only  because 
we  have  the  same  inclinations  and  desires  as  the 
world.  The  children  of  Jacob  lived  always 
separate  from  the  Egyptians :  they  dwelt  apart, 
because  their  manners  had  nothing  in  common 
with  those  of  the  people  of  the  land :  the  chil 
dren  of  Israel  offered  in  sacrifice  to  the  Lord, 
the  animals  which  Egypt  adored  :  these  things 
were  but  in  figure.  We,  in  the  midst  of  the 
world,  form  a  distinct  people,  because  we  sa 
crifice  to  the  Lord  the  passions  which  the  world 
adores:  from  the  moment  in  which  we  burst 
through  the  barrier  that  separates  us  from  it,  that 
we  quit  the  happy  land  of  Goshen,  and  mingle 
with  the  idolatrous  multitude,  their  religion  be 
comes  ours  ;  we  must  worship  what  they  adore. 
Separation  was  all  our  security,  for  it  kept  alive 


THE   CLERGY    FROM   THE   WORLD.  71 

and  upheld  a  difference  of  manners  ;  by  being 
intermingled  with  them,  we  form  but  one  peo 
ple,  and  in  all  things  our  lives  imitate  and  re 
semble  theirs.  Thus  we  every  day,  behold  in 
the  world,  ministers  of  Jesus  Christ,  not  only 
imitating  the  manners  and  excesses  of  world 
lings,  but  even  improving  upon  them  ;  surpass 
ing  them  in  effeminacy,  voluptuousness,  pomp, 
extravagance  and  oftentimes  even  in  scandal; 
refining  upon  pleasures,  priding  themselves  up 
on  greater  delicacy  and  superior  skill  in  sen 
suality,  and  becoming,  O  my  God !  the  scan 
dalous  models  of  perfection  in  whatever  tends 
to  flatter  the  senses  and  the  passions  ;  instead  of 
being  according  to  their  engagement,  examples 
of  all  the  virtues  which  mortify,  and  constrain, 
the  appetites  and  vices  of  man.  But,  my  bre 
thren,  although  the  life  of  the  world  were  mere 
ly  a  life  of  idleness  and  inutility,  yet  on  this 
very  account  ought  it  to  be  interdicted  to  mi 
nisters  of  Jesus  Christ,  who  have  been  estab 
lished  to  cultivate  the  field  of  the  Lord  ;  to 
watch  without  ceasing,  lest  the  enemy  scatter 
the  cockle  among  the  good  seed,  and  to  devote 
themselves  entirely  to  those  laborious  functions, 
to  which  they  are  solemnly  pledged  by  a  con- 


72  ON    THE    ESTRANGEMENT    OF 

secration  to  the  service  of  the  church  :  and  thi* 
truth  furnishes  me  with  a  fourth  reflection. 

FOURTH    REFLECTION. 

In   effect,    my    brethren,    the   spirit   of    our 
ministry  is  a  spirit  of  labor  :  the  priesthood  is 
a  laborious  dignity  ;  the  church  whose  ministers 
we   are,    is  a  vine,    a  field,    a  harvest,  a  holy 
warfare,  a  rising  edifice  ;  terms  which  announce 
care  and   fatigue,    labor  and  application.     The 
Priest  is  placed  in  the  church,  like  the  first  man 
in  paradise,  to  cultivate  and  guard  it :    Ut  opera- 
retur  el  cmtodirel  ilium*    Hence,  from  the  ear 
liest  ages,  the  active  discharge  of  the  ministerial 
duties  was  always  inseparably  attached  to  ordi 
nation  ;  it   was  not  the   usage  to  call  the  lazy 
workman  from  the  market  place,  to  honor   his 
sloth  with  an  unmeaning  title,  or  to  reward  him 
as  a  faithful  labourer,   unless  he  had  borne  the 
weight  of   the  day   and   of  the   heat;    and   the 
Bishop  imposed  hands  upon  the  candidates  for 
the   ministry,    only    that    he    might    disburden 
himself  of  a  part  of  his  weighty  load,  by  com 
mitting  to  them  a  portion  of  the  pastoral  soli 
citude:  in  a  word,  the  dignities  of  the  church 

*  Genesis,  c.  ii.  v.  15. 


THE   CLERGY    FROM    THE   WORLD.  73 

were    not   empty   names  and  idle    honors,   but 
employments   full  of  anxiety  and  of  toil. 

Thus  a  Priest  owes  his  whole  time  to  the 
faithful  :  excepting  necessary  relaxation,  all  that 
is  spent  in  vain  and  idle  intercourse,,  all  the 
moments,  all  the  days  which  he  allows  himself 
to  waste  in  the  frivolous  vanities  of  worldly 
societies.,  in  sport  and  dissipation,  are  days  and 
moments  which  he  owed  to  the  salvation  of  his 
brethren,  and  of  which  they  will  demand  an 
account  at  the  tribunal  of  Jesus  Christ.  By 
his  ordination  he  has  become  a  public  minis 
ter  ;  the  people  have  acquired  a  real  title  to  his 
person,  his  leisure,  his  occupations,  his  talents, 
these  are  consecrated  goods,  which  form,  as  it 
were  the  patrimony  of  the  poor;  he  is  but  the 
depositary  of  them,  nor  can  he  longer  dispose 
of  them  at  his  pleasure  :  he  must  answer  for 
them  to  the  church  and  to  her  children  ;  it 
is  not  for  his  own  sake,  but  for  her's,  that 
she  has  placed  him  in  the  number  of  her  mi 
nisters  ;  it  is  that  he  might  bear  a  part  of  her 
burdens  and  of  her  toils  :  he  degrades  himself 

o 

from  his  rank,  from  the  moment  that  he  aban 
dons  its  duties,  and  he  ceases  to  be  a  minis 
ter  as  soon  as  he  ceases  to  labour  :  he  dissi 
pates,  in  frivolity,  in  vain  and  unprofitable  vi- 


74  ON   THE   ESTRANGEMENT    OF 

sits,  in  amusements  always  indecent,  and  often 
times  dangerous,  that  time  upon  which  rolls 
the  salvation  of  his  people  ;  that  time  on  which 
depends  the  eternal  destiny  of  his  brethren; 
that  time  to  which  God  had  attached  the  con 
version  of  sinners,  the  confirmation  of  the  weak, 
the  perseverance  of  the  just,  and  which  from 
the  beginning,  had  entered  into  the  designs  of 
his  mercy  towards  his  church  and  his  elect  : 
such  is  the  crime  of  the  idle  life  of  a  Priest. 

And,  in  good  earnest,  my  brethren,  are  you 
ministers  of  the  church  only  to  drag  yourselves 
along,  every  day,  from  house  to  house ;  from 
assembly  to  assembly  ;  from  folly  to  folly,  and  not 
to  find  in  your  state,  even  occupation  enough 
to  cheer  that  listlessness  which  is  inseparable 
from  the  idleness  of  a  worldly  life?  What! 
whilst  the  leaders  of  God's  people  are,  every 
day,  in  battle  against  the  enemies  of  his  name ; 
whilst  so  many  holy  Priests  devote  themselves  to 
the  most  painful  functions  for  the  salvation  of 
their  brethren  ;  whilst  so  many  zealous  mi 
nisters  with  a  health  exhausted  by  years  and 
by  fatigues,  relax  nothing  of  their  ardor  and 
their  labors,  but  even  redouble  their  cares, 
and  their  vigilance  in  proportion  as  their 
strength  decays,  and  like  the  Apostle  generous- 


THE   CLERGY    FROM    THE   WORLD.  75 

ly  immolate  themselves  for  the  faith  of  their 
brethren  ;  whilst  so  many  apostolic  men  tra 
verse  the  seas,  and  in  the  most  distant  islands 
go  to  seek  the  crown  of  martyrdom  as  the  re 
compense  of  their  labors,  or  the  salvation  of 
the  many  nations  whom  God  seems  to  have 
abandoned:  you,  the  colleague  of  their  apos- 
tleship,  and  honoured  with  the  same  ministry  ; 
you,  would  ingloriously  languish  in  an  indo 
lence  not  only  unbecoming  your  character,  but 
disgraceful  to  a  simple  member  of  the  state? 
You,  the  man  of  God  upon  earth,  the  inter 
preter  of  his  will,  his  envoy  among  men  ;  you, 
would  forget  your  title,  your  functions,  his  inte 
rests,  his  glory  and  your  own,  and  would  merge 
your  dignity  in  an  empty  and  unprofitable  life, 
which  would  render  you  not  only  the  shame  of 
the  church,  but  the  reproach  of  civil  society, 
and  an  object  of  scorn  in  the  eyes  of  worldlings 
themselves?  For,  my  brethren,  even  in  the 
world  each  individual,  in  his  proper  condition, 
has  duties  and  obligations  which  occupy  a  con 
siderable  portion  of  his  life  :  the  magistrate, 
the  soldier,  the  father  of  a  family,  the  merchant, 
the  artisan,  all  the  various  classes  of  citizens, 
have  separate  and  serious  functions,  which  fill 
up  the  greater  part  of  their  time :  they  have 


76  ON    THE    ESTRANGEMENT    OF 

hours,   days,    times,   set   apart,    for  the  painful 
labors  of  their  different  professions  ;  the  world 
ly  Priest  alone,  amongst  the  multitude,   is  the 
most  useless  and  most  unoccupied  creature  on 
the  face  of  the  earth  ;  the  Priest  alone,    whose 
moments  should  be  so  valuable  to  the  church ; 
whose  duties  are  so  numerous  and  so  important; 
whose  cares  ought  to  increase  in  proportion  as 
the   vices   of  men   are   multiplied;    the    Priest 
alone,  has  no  function  among  men  ;   passes  his 
days  in   an  eternal  vacuity,  in  a  circle  of  un 
profitable  frivolities;   and  that  life  which  ought 
to  be  the  most  occupied  of  all,  the  most  filled  up 
with  duties,    the  most   respected,   becomes   the 
most  empty  and  the  most  contemptible  that  is 
to  be  found  even   in  the  world   itself.     When 
David  exhorted  the  generous  Urias  to  go  down 
into  his  house  and  taste   the  happiness  of  do 
mestic    pleasures;    what,     replied   that    valiant 
and  faithful  soldier,  whilst  my  companions  sleep 
under  tents,  and  amidst  the  storm  of  battle  ex 
pose  their  lives  in  defence  of  the  people  of  God, 
shall  I  repose  in  my  house,  and  give  my  heart 
to  the   sweets  and   the  joys  of  family   endear 
ments?  Et  ego  ingrediar  domum  meam  ut  come- 
dam  et  bibam  ?*     This   should,  incessantly,  be 

*  2  Kings,  c.  xi.  v.  11. 


THE    CLERGY    FROM    THE    WORLD. 


77 


the  language  of  the  idle  and  worldly  Priest  to 
himself;  can  I  live  effeminately  and  unprofita- 
bly  without  being  of  any  use  to  the  church  or 
to  the  state,  whilst  the  rest  of  men  have  each 
his  separate  occupation,  and  particularly,  whilst 
my  brethren,  my  colleagues  in  the  ministry,  ge 
nerously  sacrifice  their  lives  for  the  church,  and 
glory  in  the  fatigues  and  the  perils  \\hich  they 
undergo  for  the  salvation  of  the  children  of 
God? 

Yes,  my  brethren,  whilst  there  are  sinners  to 
be  converted,  ignorant  to  be  instructed,  weak  to 
be  supported,  afflicted  to  be  consoled,  oppressed 
to  be  defended,  infidels  to  be  confounded,  can  a 
Priest  find  leisure  for  the  pleasures  and  the  va 
nities  of  worldly  assemblies  ?  are  we  then  made 
for  an  idle  life ;  we  who  after  the  greatest  dili 
gence  and  the  utmost  exertions,  fall  far  short  of 
our  duties?  Behold  Jesus  Christ  the  prince  and 
the  model  of  pastors,  seated  by  the  well  of  Sa 
maria  ;  notwithstanding  his  fatigue,  he  takes  no 
repose,  save  in  doing  the  work  for  which  he  was 
sent ;  he  does  not  even  allow  himself  time  for  a 
frugal  repast ;  wy  meat,  says  he  to  his  disciples 
who  press  him,  is  to  do  the  will  of  my  Father  :* 

*  John.  c.  iv.  v.  31. 


78  ON    THE    ESTRANGEMENT    OF 

he  beholds  the  fields  covered  with  a  ripe  and 
abundant  harvest,  and  whilst  his  Father  wants 
labourers,  and  the  crop  is  on  the  point  of  pe 
rishing,  he  cannot  suffer  himself  to  lose  a  single 
moment,  and  therefore  conducts  this  sinful  wo 
man  to  the  knowledge  of  the  truth.     Let  us  es 
timate  by  this  example  the  value  of  our  time, 
and  the  use  we  ought  to  make  of  it.     It  is  re 
lated  of  Nehemias  that  when  engaged  in  rebuild 
ing  the  temple,  lie   was  invited  by  the  officers 
of  the  king  of  Persia,  to  go  down  into  the  plain 
of  Ono,  to  confer  with  them,  to  renew  the  alli 
ance,  and  celebrate  their  interview  by  rejoicings 
and  festivities :  veni,  said  they,  ut  percutiamus 
fcedus  pariter  in  vinculis,  in  campo  Ono  :*  but 
that  holy  man,  not  thinking  that  he  could  with 
out  guilt,  interrupt  the  sacred  duty  with  which 
he  was  charged,  for  an  affair  of  mere  civility, 
replied ;  I  am  engaged  in  a  great  work  and  can 
not  leave  it  nor  lose  sight  of  it,  lest  it  should 
be  neglected  in  my  absence :   Opus  grande  ego 
facia  et  non  possum  descenderc,  nc  forte  negliga- 
Iw/t  Is  a  Priest,  my  brethren,  occupied  in  re 
pairing  the  spiritual  edifice  of  the  church,  in 
raising  a  temple  to  the  living  God  in  the  hearts 

*  Esdras.  c.  vi.  v.  2.  flbid.  c.  vi.  v.  3 


THE    CLERGY    FROM    THE   WORLD.  79 

of  the  faithful,  charged  with  a  less  holy  or  less 
important  work?  and  what  should  be  his  answer 
to  those,  who  under  frivolous  pretexts,  endea 
vour  to  turn  him  from  his  sacred  purpose,  and 
engage  him  in  the  vain  and  unprofitable  civili 
ties  of  the  world,  hut  the  language  of  the  pious 
leader  of  the  Jews?  Opus  grande  ego  facto, 
et  non  possum  descendcre  ne  forte  negligatur. 
What  can  be  more  worthy  of  his  ministry,  or 
more  respectable  even  in  the  eyes  of  the  world, 
than  that  no  human  solicitation  can  divert  him 
from  the  sanctity  of  his  functions,  and  (he  ser 
vice  of  his  brethren  ;  than  to  prefer  the  great, 
sublime  and  honorable  work  of  God,  to  the  trifles 
and  the  pursuits  of  the  children  of  the  age  ; 
to  respect  his  ministry  and  his  functions,  to 
esteem  as  mean  and  beneath  the  dignity  of  his 
office,  all  those  objects  which  occupy  world 
lings  so  unprofitably  ;  and  to  consider  every 
hour  and  every  moment  given  without  neces 
sity  to  the  world,  as  so  much  time  denied  to 
the  building  up  of  the  holy  Jerusalem,  and 
which  must  therefore  retard  the  accomplish 
ment  of  the  work  of  God  upon  earth  :  Opus 
grande  ego  facio,  et  non  possum  descenderc  nc 
forte  negligatur.  I  allow,  that  zeal  and  firm 
ness  are  necessary  to  burst  the  ties  of  flesh 


80  ON    THE    ESTRANGEMENT   OF 

and  blood,,  to  forbid  ourselves  almost  all  inter 
course  with  that  world  to  which  we  are  bound 
by  so  many  cords  of  friendship,  of  connexion, 
and  of  civility  ;  in  which  we  are,  every  day, 
reproached  with  the  austereness  and  the  singu 
larity  of  our  seclusion  ;  a  point  on  which  we  are 
taught  that  it  would  be  even  vain  for  us,  to  give 
good  example  ;  and  where  in  fine,  we  are  se 
duced  and  led  astray,  as  well  by  the  conduct  of 
our  brethren  in  the  ministry,  as  by  the  bent  of 
our  own  inclinations:  but  this  very  considera 
tion  supplies  me  with  another  reflection,  and 
becomes  a  new  proof  of  that  truth  of  which  I 
wish  to  convince  you. 

FIFTH    REFLECTION. 

I  say  then,  in  the  fifth  place,  that  the  spirit  of 
our  ministry  is  a  spirit  of  firmness  and  of  zeal. 
We  are  appointed  to  exhort,  to  correct,  to  re 
prehend,  in  season  and  out  of  season:  public 
disorders  and  abuses  should  ever  find  us  un 
bending  and  inexorable :  the  Priest  must  no 
longer  regard  those  ignominies  which  never 
fail  to  accompany  the  exercise  of  sacerdotal 
freedom  :  with  far  greater  majesty  than  the 
Pontiff  of  the  law,  he  bears  inscribed  upon  his 
brow.  Doctrine  and  Truth  :  he  no  longer  knows 


THE   CLERGY    FROM    THE   WORLD.  8l 

any  man  according  to  the  flesb  :  his  firmness  to- 
wards  his  relatives,,  his  friends  and  protectors, 
must  warrant  his  sternness  towards  those  with 
whom  he  has  no  connexion ;  and  his  severity  to 
wards  the  latter  should  never  blush  at  his  com 
plaisance  towards  the  former  :  the  grace  of  the 
imposition  of  hands  is  a  grace  of  strength  and  of 
courage,  it  infuses  into  the  soul  marked  with 
the  sacred  seal,  a  heroism,  which  raises  her 
above  her  own  weakness,  which  fills  her  with 
sentiments,,  noble.,  lofty,  generous,  and  worthy 
of  the  elevation  of  her  ministry  ;  which  lifts 
her  above  fear  and  hope,  above  reputation  and 
reproach,  and  whatever  else  sways  the  conduct 
of  the  rest  of  men  ;  and  which  causes  to  flow 
through  our  veins,  together  with  the  sacred 
unction,  that  undaunted  spirit,  that  sacerdotal 
energy,  that  apostolic  blood  which  we  have 
inherited  from  our  fathers,  from  our  predeces 
sors  in  the  ministry,  from  the  illustrious  foun 
ders  and  first  heroes  of  our  religion. 

Now,  this  spirit  of  firmness  and  zeal,  is  the 
most  opposite  that  can  be  imagined  to  the  spirit 
of  the  world.  For,  the  spirit  of  the  world,  is  a 
spirit  of  compliance,  of  adulation,  of  complai 
sance,  of  obsequiousness,  of  false  regard  to  per 
sons  and  to  circumstances  :  we  must  have  no 

G 


82  ON    THE    ESTRANGEMENT    OF 

sentiment  of  our  own  ;  must  think  with  the 
greater  number,  or  at  least  with  the  stronger 
party  ;  must  have  our  suffrage,  as  it  were,  al 
ways  ready,  and  wait  only  for  the  favourable 
moment  to  proffer  it :  we  must  smile  at  impiety, 
and  applaud  obscenity,  that  is  scarcely  conceal 
ed;  must  accustom  our  ears  to  the  most  open  and 
most  cruel  detraction  ;  eulogize  ambition  and  its 
schemes ;  suffer  the  endowments  of  the  mind 
and  of  the  body  to  be  prized  above  those  of 
grace.  In  fine,  if  we  would  live  in  the  world, 
we  must  think,  or  at  least,  we  must  speak  like 
the  world  :  we  must  not  bring  into  it  an  un 
bending,  a  singular  and  untractable  spirit,  which 
would  not  only  render  us  a  mockery  and  a 
laughing-stock,  but  which  would  soon  become 
disgustful  even  to  ourselves  :  we,  who  are  the 
salt  of  the  earth  must  change,  must  conform 
and  even  infatuate  ourselves  with  the  children 
of  the  world ;  we,  who  ought  to  be  the  censors 
of  the  world,  must  become  its  panegyrists ;  we, 
who  are  the  light  of  the  world,  must  perpetuate 
its  blindness,  by  our  suffrage  and  our  baseness  ; 
in  a  word,  we,  who  ought  to  be  the  help  and 
the  salvation  of  the  world,  must  perish  with  it. 

But  admitting  that  you  bring  with  you  into 
the  world,  all  the  precautions  of  the  most  vigi- 


THE    CLERGY    FROM    THE   WORLD.  83 

Jant  piety,  and  that  you  stand  firm  against  the 
force  of  example,  and  all  those  seductions  which 
it  is  so  difficult  to  resist  long ;  admitting  that 
your  love  of  truth,  your  firmness  and  courage 
are  apparent  and  undoubted  ;  yet  will  you  soon 
begin  to  relax.  Those  notions  of  zeal  and  of 
courage  which  you  have  imbibed  in  this  place  of 
retreat,  during  the  progress  of  your  clerical 
education,  will  be  quickly  effaced  :  the  com 
merce  of  the  world  will  weaken  and  change 

3 

them,  and  make  them  appear  as  so  many  ex 
travagancies  even  in  your  own  eyes  :  to  them 
will  succeed  other  ideas  less  stern,  more  hu 
man,  and  more  in  conformity  with  the  common 
manner  of  thinking:  what  appeared  to  you,  zeal 
and  duty,  you  will  deem  excess  and  imprudence; 
and  you  will  consign  to  the  headstrong  and  the 
ignorant,  what  you  had  once  considered  to  be 
the  virtue  and  the  wisdom  of  the  priesthood. 
Nothing  so  much  enervates  the  firmness  of  the 
ministry,  as  the  unprofitable  commerce  of  the 
world  :  we  enter  by  little  and  little,  and  even 
without  perceiving  it  ourselves,  into  the  preju 
dices,  the  excesses,  the  false  reasonings  by 
which  worldlings  are  accustomed  to  extenuate 
and  justify  their  disorders  :  by  habitually  fre 
quenting  them,  we  no  longer  find  them  so  guilty: 


ON    THE    ESTRANGEMENT    OF 

we  even  become  almost  the  apologists  of  their 
luxury,  their  idleness,  their  pageantry,  their  am 
bition,  their  animosities,   their  jealousies  ;     we 
learn,  like  the  world,  to  give  to  all  these  pas 
sions  a  milder  name;   and  what  confirms  us  in 
this  new  system  of  conduct,  is,  that  it  is  accre 
dited  by  the    suffrages  of  worldlings  ;    that  the 
world  gives  to  our  cowardice  and  degeneracy, 
the  specious  names   of  moderation,  of  superior 
mind,  of  knowledge  of  the  world,  of  talent  to 
render  virtue  amiable  ;  and  to  the  opposite  con 
duct,  the  odious  epithets  of  meanness,  of  vulga 
rity,   of  excess,  and  of  harshness,   fitted  only  to 
alienate  from  religion,  and  render  piety  disgust 
ing  and  contemptible.      Thus,    through   grati 
tude,  we  treat  the  world  obligingly,   because  it 
flatters  our   baseness  with   all   the   honors   and 
all  the  respect  due  to  prudence  and  virtue;  we 
think  it  more  innocent,   since  it  finds   us  more 
estimable  ;   and  we  are    more   favourable  to  its 
vices,    since  it   has    metamorphosed   our  vices, 
into  virtues.     For,  how  rarely  is  it  that  >ve  are 
the  severe  and  troublesome  censurers  of  our  ad 
mirers;    and  how  few   are  there  to  be   found, 
like  Barnabas  and  Saul,  who  because  they  would 
not  relax  the    truth,    caused    themselves  to   be 
stoned  by  the  very  people,  who,  but  a  moment 


THE   CLERGY    FROM    THE   WORLD.  83 

before  were  ready  to  offer  them  sacrifice,  as  to 
Gods  that  had  come  down  upon  the  earth.* 

The  spirit  of  zeal  is  then  incompatible  with 
the  spirit,  and  the  commerce  of  the  world  :  in 
proportion  as  you  familiarize  yourselves  to  what 
is  most  reprehensible  in  its  conduct,  you  will 
no  longer  find  any  thing-  to  reprehend ;  you 
will  lose  sight  of  the  great  rules  of  morality,,  and 
of  the  doctrine  of  the  saints,  and  you  will  even 
forget  amidst  the  trifling  and  the  dissipation  of 
worldly  society,  whatever  little  you  had  learned 
of  them  in  your  early  years ;  you  will  no  longer 
cultivate  those  precious  seeds  of  study,  and 
knowledge,  which  mi^ht  render  you  useful  to 

CT      y  J 

the  church ;  books  will  become  for  you,  an  un 
pleasant  and  tiresome  occupation,  and  you  will 
quickly  lose  all  relish  for  them ;  to  serious  and 
professional  studies,  you  will  substitute  light 
and  frivolous,  perhaps,  indecent  and  dangerous 
reading,  because  you  will  find  it  of  greater  use  in 
your  connexion  and  intimacies  with  the  world  : 
and  this  suggests  a  new  reflection  to  confirm 
my  doctrine,  and  condemn  your  practice. 

*Acts.  c.  xiv. 


86  ON    THE    ESTRANGEMENT    OF 

SIXTH    REFLECTION. 

Yes,    my  brethren,    in   the  sixth   place,   the 
spirit    of    our    ministry    is    a    spirit   of   know 
ledge.     The  lips  of  the  Priest,  says  the  Holy 
Ghost,   are  the   depositories  of  doctrine:*  \ve, 
like  the   prophet,   are   commanded    to    eat   the 
sacred  volume  of  the  law,f  in  spite  of  all  the 
bitterness  with  which  study  and  watching  may 
be   attended :    we  must    eat  the   bread    of  the 
gospel    in  the    sweat   of  our  brow,    and    must 
adorn  the  interior  of  our  soul  with   the  law  of 
God,  as  the  Jewish  Priests  were  accustomed  to 
adorn  the  exterior  of  their  garments.     The  holy 
scriptures  are,  as  it  were,  the  substance  and  the 
foundation  of  the  Christian  priesthood :  it  is  thus 
that  an  ancient  council  expresses  it,    Sacerdotii 
hypostasin:     The   Priests  are  compared  by  the 
doctors  of  the  church,  to  the  two  great  lights, 
which  God  in  the  beginning  placed  in  the  firma 
ment  :  we  must  rule  the  day  and  the  night ;  the 
day,  by  guiding  the  faith  and  the  piety  of  chris- 
tians;  the  night,  by  enlightening  the  darkness 
of  error,  of  unbelief,  and  of  strange  doctrine. 
We  are  the  interpreters  of  the  law,  the  deposi- 

*Malachy.  c.  ii.  v.  7.        f  Ezekiel.  c.  iii.  v.  1. 


THE    CLERGY    FROM    THE    WORLD.  87 

taries  of  the  traditions  of  the  church,,  the  doctors 
and  the  oracles  of  the  people,  the  seers  and  pro 
phets  established  to  clear  up  their  doubts  and 
make  known  to  them  the  will  of  the  Lord,  the 
resource  of  the  church  amidst  the  troubles,  the 
scandals,  and  the  schisms  that  distract  and  afflict 
her. 

But  sustain  if  you  can,  all  these  illustrious 
titles,  amidst  the  manners  and  the  dissipations  of 
the  world.  For,  learning  in  a  Priest  is  not  like 
one  of  those  brilliant  and  rare  talents,  which 
heaven  distributes  at  its  choice,  and  which  it 
does  not  bestow  on  all ;  in  him  it  is  an  essential 
talent  inseparable  from  the  ministry.  The  Apos 
tle  after  having  enumerated  the  various  gifts, 
which  the  spirit  of  God  poured  upon  the  early 
church,  and  remarked  that  in  it,  some  were  pro 
phets,  some  had  the  gift  of  tongues,  others  the 
grace  of  healing,  and  the  power  of  miracles;* 
adds,  that  others,  were  pastors  and  doctors  :  Pas- 
tores  et  Doctores  :  nor  does  he  separate  these  two 
characters,  for  the  one  is  a  necessary  conse 
quence  of  the  other.  Now,  nothing  is  more  fa^ 
tal  to  the  love  of  learning,  than  a  taste  for  the 
commerce  and  the  society  of  worldlings  :  study 

*  1.  Cor.  c.  1-2. 


88  ON    THE    ESTRANGEMENT    OF 

demands  retirement  and  collectedness  ;  daily  dis 
sipations  and    interruptions,    cool    our  ardor  at 
once,  and  entirely  destroy  all  relish  and  all  zeal 
for  improvement.     I  do  not  say,  that  they  pre 
vent   you   from    undertaking    profound    studies, 
from  investigating  what  is  most  obscure  in  an 
tiquity  on   the  subject   of  faith  and  discipline, 
and  enriching  the  church  \vitli  new  works ;  this 
is  not  what  is  required  from  you  :   such  talents 
are  confined  to  a  small  number  of  learned  and 
laborious  ministers  whom  God  raises  to  be  the 
lights  of  the  age.    But  I  eay,  that  even  the  com 
mon  and  ordinary  studies  requisite  for  a  Priest, 
to  attain  a  knowledge  of  his  duty  ;  to  fill  himself 
with  the  sacred  truths  which  he  is  obliged  to  an 
nounce ;  to  put  himself  in  a  condition  to  exer 
cise  the  functions  of  his  ministry  with  confidence 
and  safety ;  I  say  that  even  for  these  studies,  he 
requires   a  mind  accustomed  to  think,  to   me 
ditate  and  to  be  alone  :  too  much  of  intimacy  and 
of  intercourse  with  the  world,  must  not  render 
his  books  tedious  and  insupportable  ;  there  must 
be  a  certain  desire  of  instruction  ;  a  temper  of 
mind  serious,  and  averse  to  trifles;  a  habit  of 
retreat  and   of  reflection  ;'  an   arrangement   of 
time,  in  which  he  calls  himself  to  an  account  for 
his  progress,  and  in  which  the  hours  allotted  to 


THE    CLERGY  FROM  THE  WORLD. 

his  different  duties,  are,  in  their  regular  order, 
each  employed  in  the  prosecution  of  its  peculiar 
object;  in  a  word,  a  kind  of  life  uniform,  oc 
cupied,  regulated,  that  can  never  be  combined 
with  the  engagements,  the  eternal  variations,  the 
irregularity  and  the  distractions  of  the  life  of 
the  world.  So,  my  brethren,  hence  it  is,  that 
we  see  so  many  Priests  better  instructed  in  the 
trifles,  the  usages,  and  the  affairs  of  the  world, 
than  in  the  duties  of  religion,  and  the  laws 
of  the  church:  hence  it  is,  that  the  world  is 
filled  with  idle  ministers  who  go  about  dragging 
along  the  shame  of  their  character,  together 
with  their  incapacity  :  hence,  that  is,  from  this 
idle  and  irregular  life,  without  application,  with 
out  constraint,  and  without  knowledge,  hence 
I  say  falls  and  scandals  and  the  opprobrium  of 
the  church,  and  those  horrors  which  I  dare 
not  name.  For,  my  brethren,  on  quitting  this 
place  of  retreat,  and  returning  to  the  house  of 
your  friends,  or  entering  on  the  labors  of  the 
priesthood,  there  is  nothing  but  reading  that  can 
support  your  piety,  as  there  is  nothing  but  piety 
that  can  regulate  and  guide  your  studies.  The 
love  of  books  alone,  can  remove  and  shelter 
you  from  the  perils  inevitable  amidst  the  bustle 
and  the  seductions  of  the  world :  from  the  mo- 


90  ON    THE    ESTRANGEMENT    OF 

ment  in  which  you  shall  no  longer  find  any  thing 
at  home,  to  fix,  to  attach  you,  to  fill  up  the 
void  of  your  days,  you  will  be  obliged  to  go 
seek  it  in  public  :  the  commerce  and  the  amuse 
ments  of  the  world  will  become  necessary  to> 
you,  nor  will  you  be  any  longer  able  to  dispense 
with  them.  In  vain  will  you  propose  to  your 
self  certain  limits  and  rules ;  in  vain  will  you 
resolve  to  divide  yourself  between  your  books 
and  your  worldly  connexions,  for  this  is  a  plan 
which  no  one  fails  to  make ;  the  world  no  more 
than  Jesus  Christ,  does  not  long  suffer  these 
divisions  ;  you  will  soon  pass  over  entirely  to 
its  side ;  the  love  of  the  world  will  increase  iu 
you,  and  become  stronger  every  day;  and  in 
proportion  as  it  increases,  the  love  of  books  al 
ready  so  weak  and  languishing,  will  diminish 
till  it  becomes  utterly  extinct:  disgust  will 
change  into  aversion;  you  will  no  longer  be 
able  to  endure  a  single  moment  of  application 
and  serious  reading,  nor  will  you  even  attempt 
to  shake  off  your  indifference,  nor  offer  your 
self  the  least  violence  on  the  subject ;  idleness 
once  relished  and  habitual,  will  soon  remove 
or  destroy  whatever  is  serious  or  grave  in  your 
life  or  about  your  person,  except  indeed  some 
external  marks  of  your  state,  which  will  remain 


THE    CLERGY    FROM   THE   WORLD.  91 

only  for  your  reproach.  And  then  judge  whe 
ther  abandoned  to  yourself,  without  succour, 
without  occupation,,  with  no  other  resource  than 
the  very  occasions  which  enervate  you;  inces 
santly  exposed,,  and  defended  only  by  your  love 
of  the  very  danger;  judge,  whether  you  are 
likely  to  go  far  without  yielding,  without  sur 
rendering  yourself,  without  losing  all  relish  of 
innocence  and  virtue,  having  already  lost  the 
love  of  whatever  might  preserve  and  defend  it, 
instead  of  keeping  alive  that  pure  and  tender 
piety  which  honours  the  ministry,  and  which 
alone  can  sanctify  all  its  functions :  and  this 
brings  me  to  my  last  reflection. 

SEVENTH    REFLECTION. 

I  say  then,  in  the  last  place,  that  the  spirit 
of  our  ministry  is  a  spirit  of  piety.  By  this 
spirit  of  piety  I  understand  not  only  innocence 
of  morals,  but  that  purity  of  conscience,  that 
religious  feeling,  that  love  of  God,  that  delicacy 
of  soul,  which  is  alarmed  at  the  very  appear 
ance  of  evil  :  such  is  the  spirit  of  piety  which 
is  as  the  soul  and  the  entire  security  of  our 
ministry,  for  we  live  as  it  were  in  the  continual 
intercourse  with  holy  things.  The  temples,  the 
altars,  the  holy  mysteries,  the  sacred  canticles, 


92  ON    THE    ESTRANGEMENT    OF 

the  word  of  life;  it  is  amidst  these  divine  and 
terrific  objects,  that  we  pass  our  days  ;  and  it  is 
about  these  magnificent  spectacles  which  the 
angels  themselves  do  not  behold  without  trem 
bling,  that  we  are  occupied. 

Now  let  me  ask  you,    what  is   there  in  all 
these  functions  that  must  not  excite  terror  even 
in  the  most  collected  and  tender  piety?     How 
great  the  spirit  of  prayer,  of  retirement,  of  cir 
cumspection,    of    faith,    of    rigid    watchfulness 
over   the  senses,  that  ought  to   prepare  us  for 
these   formidable   duties!      A    Priest    must   no 
longer  tolerate  in  himself  any   thing  which  he 
cannot  bring   to  the   altar,   and  which   cannot 
sustain  the  presence  of  the  tremendous  myste 
ries.     The  very  ornaments  in  which  he  is  cloth 
ed,    the    sacred    vases    which    he    uses,   and    in 
which  the  holy  oblation  reposes,  could  not  ap 
pear  in  the  sanctuary,  if  they  had  not  been  pu 
rified,  sanctified,  and  consecrated  by  the  prayers 
of  the   church.      How   much    more   ought   the 
dispositions,  the  desires,  the  affections  of  heart,, 
which  the  Priest  carries  to  the  altar,  and  which 
form,  as  it  were,  a  sacerdotal  robe,  the  sacred 
ornaments  of  his  soul,  to  have  a   superior  holi 
ness  ;  how  much  more  should  they  be  purified,, 
sanctified  and  consecrated  by  the  unction  of  the 


THE   CLERGY    FROM   THE   WORLD.  93 

holy  spirit  residing  in  him  ?  He  can  no  longer 
bear  into  the  holy  place,  the  common  desires, 
dispositions  and  affections  of  mankind;  although 
they  be  not  defiled,  they  are  unworthy  of  ap 
pearing  in  it;  they  must  be  purified  by  the  di 
vine  fire  of  charity,  and  thus  pass  from  their 
ordinary  and  profane  state,  as  it  were,  to  one 
that  is  holy  and  sublime  :  in  a  word,  as  there  is 
nothing  more  elevated  and  grand  than  his  func 
tions,  so  there  should  be  nothing  more  holy, 
more  pure,  more  exalted  than  his  piety.  Yet 
you  pretend  to  combine  with  a  worldly  life,  with 
the  dissipations  and  the  dangers  of  society,  and 
of  worldly  intercourse,  that  piety  and  that  holi 
ness  which  few  Priests  can  attain  even  in  the 
seclusion  of  the  most  austere  retreat.  Alas  !  an 
entire  life  of  prayer,  of  recollection  and  of  pe 
nance  could  not,  in  ancient  times,  quiet  the 
holy  anxieties  of  the  ministers  of  the  Lord  : 
they  could  not  think  cf  the  altar  without  trem 
bling,  nor  did  they  ascend  its  steps  without  a 
sacred  horror  :  the  more  mortified  their  lives, 
and  the  more  vigilant  they  were  to  guard  their 
souls  from  every  stain,  the  more  they  felt  them- 
selves  to  be  defiled  in  the  presence  of  the  lamb 
.without  spot,  which  they  were  going  to  immo 
late.  And  you,  would  pass  from  a  party  of 


94  ON   THE    ESTRANGEMENT   OF 

pleasure  to  the  altar  of  God  ;  you  would  bless 
the  sacred  offerings  with  the  same  breath,  with 
which  you  had  just  uttered  frivolous  and  pro 
fane  words  ?  you  would  bring  to  the  tremen 
dous  mysteries  a  mind  filled  with  vain  and  in 
decent  images?  and  instead  of  ascending  in  spi 
rit  to  the  foot  of  the  glorious  and  everlasting 
altar  of  the  heavenly  Jerusalem  ;  instead  of  an 
nihilating  yourself  in   spirit  with  the   Thrones 
and  Dominations,  and  of  singing  with  them  in 
the  presence   of  the  Almighty   the   canticle   of 
eternity  which  the  church  puts  into  your  mouth ; 
after  having   reminded    yourself  to   raise  your 
heart  on  high,  Sursum  corda,  you  would   suf 
fer  it  to  trail  along  the  dirt  of  the  world  which 
you  had  just  quitted,  over  a  thousand  objects 
unworthy  of  engaging  the  attention  of  a  wise 
man  in  any  place,   and  infinitely   unworthy  to 
occupy,  even  for  a  moment,  a  Priest  at  the  altar 
offering  Jesus  Christ  as  a  victim  of  propitiation 
to  his  Father  ?  and  yet  you  would  dare  to  ap 
pear  in  the  holy  place  with  a  conscience,  negli 
gent,    doubtful,    almost  altogether   worldly,    in 
which  there  is  nothing  but  disorder,  darkness, 
and  confusion,  and  where  perhaps,    it  is  your 
greatest  crime,  that  you  feel  no  remorse,  and 


THE   CLERGY    FROM   THE   WORLD.  95 

that  you  are  without  any  definite  or  even  ge 
neral  impression  of  your  own  guilty  state. 

But  moreover,  this  worldly  and  dissipated  life 
is  not  only  irreconcileable  with  that  sacerdotal 
piety  which  should  accompany  us  to  the  altar, 
but  also  with  that  grave  and  edifying  piety 
which  should  prepare  us  for  every  duty,  as  it 
is  this  alone  that  can  ensure  the  success  of  our 
various  functions.  For,  in  good  earnest,  after 
having  rendered  your  person  a  continual  and 
public  spectacle,  amidst  the  amusements  and  the 
empty  joys  of  the  world,  how  will  you  display 
before  your  people  in  th<3  Christian  pulpit,  all 
the  seriousness  and  severity  of  the  gospel  truths, 
all  the  sincerity  and  sorrow  of  a  true  zeal? 
what  grace  will  you  then  have  to  treat  of  the 
dangers  to  which  the  faithful  are  exposed  in  the 
world,  and  of  the  wisdom  of  forsaking  it ;  of  the 
snares  which  the  devil  lays  for  innocence  ;  of 
the  necessity  of  prayer,  of  recollection  and  of 
watchfulness  ;  of  the  eye  which  we  must  pluck 
out  when  it  becomes  a  subject  of  scandal  to  us; 
of  the  account  which  we  must  render  even  for 
an  idle  word  ?  and  in  fine,  IIOAV  will  you  recom 
mend  those  bitter  maxims  of  self-denial,  so  little 
visible  in  your  own  morals,  and  so  little  known 
to  the  world?  what  an  air  of  coldness  and  in- 


96  ON    THE    ESTRANGEMENT    OF 

difference  will  you  not  then  exhibit?  The  sa 
cred  truths  of  sai\ation  issue  with  regret,  as  it 
were,,  and  by  constraint  from  a  mouth  habitu 
ated  to  worldly  and  frivolous  discourses.  To 
preach  Christ  crucified,  with  the  Apostle,  we 
must,  like  him,  be  attached  to  the  cross  :  to  in 
spire  the  love  of  God,  and  of  the  things  of  hea 
ven,  we  must  have  it  and  feel  it  ourselves:  to 
move  and  gain  the  heart,  we  must  employ  lan 
guage  that  springs  only  from  a  heart  that  is 
moved  and  inflamed.  In  the  chair  of  truth, 
you  will  resemble  the  mercenary  declaimers  of 
Athens  and  Rome,  who  displayed  their  elo 
quence  in  the  public  schools,  upon  vague  and 
indifferent  subjects,  that  interested  neither  their 
auditors  nor  themselves.  You  will  make  the 
ministry  of  the  word  a  vain  and  ostentatious 
exercise,  a  spectacle  for  the  world,  not  a  seri 
ous  instruction  for  sinners  :  you  will  seek  rather 
the  applause,  than  the  conversion,  of  your  hear 
ers  ;  your  own  glory,  rather  than  the  glory  of 
Jesus  Christ ;  yourself,  rather  than  the  salvation 
of  your  brethren.  But  supposing  that  you  were 
to  speak  with  an  appearance  of  zeal,  that  you 
were  to  borrow  the  most  touching  expressions 
of  Christian  eloquence,  that  you,  yourself  were 
to  be  moved  by  the  truths  which  you  announce, 


THE   CLERGY   FROM    THE   WORLD.  97 

and  to  which  you  cannot  entirely  refuse  your 
heart ;  in  what  light,  think  you,  will  you  be  re 
garded  by  your  audience,  who  are  fully  ac 
quainted  with  the  dissipation  of  your  morals, 
and  the  eternal  unprofitableness  of  your  life  ? 
what  will  they  say,  when  they  hear  you  weep 
ing  over  the  disorders  in  which  you  yourself  in 
dulge,  and  which  will  find  you  on  quitting  the 
pulpit,  again,  an  eager  and  devoted  friend?  your 
weeping  will  be  to  them  as  the  weeping  on  a 
stage :  in  their  opinion  you  will  have  played 
your  part  well,  and  all  the  sanctity  and  majesty, 
all  the  threats  and  terrors  of  the  gospel,  will  be 
for  them,  as  the  profane  and  empty  scenes  of  a 
theatrical  exhibition. 

No,  my  brethren,  it  is  difficult  indeed  to 
maintain  all  the  seriousness  of  our  ministry  in 
the  midst  of  the  world.  The  success  of  our 
functions  is  attached  only  to  the  exactness  of 
our  morals,  and  to  rareness  of  our  communica 
tion  with  the  children  of  the  age.  The  appear* 
ance  of  a  Priest,  of  a  minister  of  religion  in  the 
world,  ought  to  be  as  rare,  as  was  formerly  the 
apparition  of  the  angels  of  God,  those  minis 
ters  of  the  divine  will :  such  is  the  earnest  wish 
of  an  ancient  father.  Its  singularity  \vould 
strike  the  people  with  all  the  interest  of  a  novei 


98  ON   THE   ESTRANGEMENT   OF 

spectacle,  and  thus  the  error  of  the  Jews  that 
no  man  could  live  after  seeing  the  angel  of  the 
Lord,  might  become  a  truth  amongst  us;  so> 
that  a  sinner  having  once  beheld  the  modesty, 
the  gravity  and  sanctity  of  a  Priest,  would  feel 
that  he  must  live  no  longer  to  the  world  and  to 
his  passions,  but  must  die  to  all,  after  having 
once  witnessed  so  holy  and  so  edifying  a  sight: 
Morte  moricmur  quia  vidimus  Dominum*  By 
shewing  ourselves  often  in  public,  we  accustom 
the  faithful  to  see  us  without  respect  or  atten 
tion  ;  our  dignity  always  suffers  from  the  fami 
liarity  of  our  presence ;  it  is  difficult  to  be  al 
ways  on  our  guard  against  ourselves,  for  the 
most  vigilant  piety  has,  yet,  its  moments  of  in 
attention  or  relaxation,  and  the  most  trivial  fault 
that  we  commit,  is  from  the  nature  of  our  cha 
racter  or  by  their  malignity,  heightened  in  their 
mind,  into  a  crime.  Whilst  Moses  remained 
among  the  people  in  the  camp,  notwithstand 
ing  the  splendor  of  his  miracles,  and  the  sanc 
tity  of  his  life,  there  was  nothing  to  be  heard 
but  complaints  against  his  conduct :  his  very 
relations  themselves,  accustomed  to  see  him 
more  nearly,  almost  regarded  him  as  an  ordinary 

*  Judges,  c.  xiii.  v.  22, 


THE    CLERGY    FROM    THE   WORLD.  99 

man ;  and  God  found  it  necessary  to  strike  his 
ve^ry  sister  with  a  sudden  leprosy,,  to  punish  her 
murmurs,,  and  the  contempt  in  which  she  held 
his  servant.  But  after  forty  days  of  retreat  on 
the  mountain,,  scarcely  does  he  shew  himself  to 
the  same  people.,  when  he  appears  a  new  man, 
all  shining  with  glory ;  and  such  is  the  excess 
of  their  respect,  that  they  no  longer  dare  even 
to  raise  their  eyes  to  behold  him.  We,  my  bre 
thren,  have  every  thing  to  lose  in  a  familiar  in 
tercourse  with  worldlings :  if  we  do  not  forfeit 
our  innocence,  we  debase,,  at  least,  our  charac 
ter  ;  if  the  world  does  not  become  our  idol; 
we  become  at  least^  its  fable  and  contempt ;  if 
we  do  not  imitate  its  manners  and  its  disorders, 
we  at  least,  render  our  functions  and  our  virtues 
wholly  useless  to  it. 

And  besides,  how  can  we  flatter  ourselves  that 
this  worldly  and  unprofitable  life  will  not  in  the 
end,  lead  us  to  the  precipice  ?  but  this  must  be 
the  subject  of  another  discourse  ;  in  the  pre 
sent,  I  have  proposed  to  myself  to  consider  the 
worldly  life  of  the  clergy,  only  in  reference  to 
its  incompatibility  with  the  spirit  of  our  minis 
try,  and  not  with  regard  to  the  irreparable  mis 
fortunes  into  which  it  plunges  us.  How  many 
are  they  my  brethren!  how  many  shameful  falls? 


100  ON   THE   ESTRANGEMENT   OF 

how  many  secret  abominations  ?  how  many 
names  and  blasphemies  engraved  on  the  heart 
of  a  Priest,  where  nothing-  should  be  written, 
but  the  ineffable  name  of  the  Eternal,  with  the 
names  and  the  love  of  the  tribes  confided  to 
his  care  !  how  many  crimes  which  have  grown 
old  in  the  midst  of  holy  things  ?  how  many 
deaths  attended  with  impenitence,  despair,  irre- 
ligion,  with  frightful  insensibility  to  the  very 
last?  for  hardness  of  heart  at  the  hour  of  death, 
is  the  ordinary  end  of  a  bad  Priest. 

These  consequences  make  you  tremble  ;  but 
they  are  of  daily  occurrence  ;  they  are  unavoid 
able  ;  the  world  leads  to  this,  sooner  or  later. 
And  besides,  do  you  reckon  it  as  nothing,  that 
your  conduct  should  be  the  scandal  of  your 
brethren,  and  the  sorrow  of  the  virtuous  ? 
What?  shall  you  be  eternally  to  be  found  amidst 
the  pleasures  and  the  follies  of  the  world,  liv 
ing  habitually  with  persons  of  another  sex ;  ren 
dering  them  frivolous  and  shameful  attentions, 
unworthy  alike  of  the  gravity,  and  the  sanctity 
of  your  character;  and  yet  the  world  make  an 
exception  in  your  favour,  and  not  impute  it  to 
you  as  a  crime?  and  shall  the  impious  pardon 
you  alone,  and  not  make  you  the  subject  of  their 
derisions  and  their  blasphemies  ?  The  Pharisee 


THE    CLERGY    FROM    THE    WORLD.  101 

is  scandalized  on  seeing  a  sinful  woman  at  the 
feet  of  Jesus  Christ,  although  it  was  in  the  most 
edifying  and  touching*  circumstances  of  repen 
tance  and  tears  ;  and  shall  the  world  behold  you, 
you  a  minister  of  the  altar,  you  the  envoy  of 
God  upon  earth,  shall  it  behold  you  at  the  feet, 
perhaps,  of  a  sinful  woman,  and  not  be  offend 
ed  at  the  sight  ?  and  will  it  suspend  the  malig 
nity  of  its  judgments?  and  shall  that  world 
which  forgives  us  nothing,  that  world,  the  first 
arrows  of  \vhose  censure  and  scorn  are  always 
levelled  against  us,  that  world  which  even  stu 
dies  to  find  weaknesses  in  our  very  virtues  and 
in  our  holiest  actions,  discover  nothing  worthy 
of  its  derision  and  reproach,  even  in  our  vices 
and  our  scandals?  No,  my  brethren,  its  failing 
in  our  regard,  is  not  to  excuse  or  extenuate 
what  ought  to  be  condemned,  but  to  blacken 
and  exaggerate  even  what  might  be  excusable. 

But,  you  will  say,  that  our  functions  them 
selves  place  us  in  the  necessity  of  entering  into 
the  society,  and  the  commerce  of  worldlings. 
This  I  readily  admit :  but  we  go  there  but  rare 
ly,  when  we  go  only  at  the  call  of  duty.  When 
we  have  no  other  object  than  to  conduct  souls 
to  Jesus  Christ,  we  appear  in  public  only  to 
shew  them  the  path  of  salvation  ;  from  the  mo- 


J02  ON   THE    ESTRANGEMENT    OF 

ment  that  they  have  found  it,  and  can  advance 
without  us,  we  conceal  ourselves  and  return  to 
the  obscurity  and  safety  of  retreat,  like  to  the 
star  which  guided  the  wise  men  to  the  infant 
Saviour,  and  which  was  an  illustrious  figure  of 
what  ought  to  be  the  conduct  of  pastors.  See 
how  it  shews  itself  as  far  as  Bethlehem,  whi 
ther  it  had  to  conduct  those  sages  of  the  East. 
From  the  moment  in  which  they  find,  recog 
nise  and  adore  Jesus,  it  disappears,  it  becomes 
eclipsed,  it  sinks  away  amidst  the  clouds  of 
heaven,  its  ministry  was  finished,  and  with  its 
ministry  its  appearance  ends. 

But  when  we  have  a  certain  name  in  the  world, 
and  are  connected  with  it  by  so  many  duties,  we 
cannot  dispense  ourselves  from  those  thousand 
civilities  and  attentions,  which  long  usage  has 
established.  Remember,  my  brethren,  that  we 
have  our  laws  and  our  rules  apart ;  that  the  ty 
ranny  of  the  usages  of  the  world,  and  the  tri 
bute  of  unprofitableness  which  it  exacts,  bind 
none  but  its  slaves,  for  the  children  are  free,* 
according  to  the  expression  of  Jesus  Christ; 
that  it  is  ridiculous  to  subject  to  the  laws  and 
the  abuses  of  the  world,  those  who  are  to  judge 

*Matthew.  c.  xvii.  v.  25. 


THE   CLERGY    FROM    THE   WORLD.  103 

the  world;  that  the  decencies  of  other  states, 
are  the  indecencies  of  ours ;  that  there  is  a  cer 
tain  reserve  proper  to  persons  consecrated  to 
God,  which  is  prescribed  by  good  taste  even 
according  to  the  world;  and  that  our  infre- 
quency  in  public  will  always  be  attended  with 
honor,  even  in  the  estimation  of  those,  who  may 
appear  to  impute  it  to  us  as  a  crime. 

Thus  my  brethren,  let  the  most  solid  fruit  of 
your  seclusion  in  this  holy  place,  be  to  destroy, 
in  yourselves,  all  relish  for  the  world,  its  com 
merce  and  amusements.  As  long  as  you  shall  feel 
any  remains  of  this  fatal  desire,,  reckon  it  as  an 
evil  leaven  that  will  one  day  corrupt  the  whole 
mass;  it  is  by  if  alone  that  you  will  perish,  and 
if  you  ought  to  despair  of  bringing  it  into  sub 
jection  to  your  duty,  take  then  the  world  for 
your  portion,  before  a  solemn  and  holy  engage 
ment  shall  have  imposed  upon  you  the  severe 
law  of  separating  yourself  from  it  for  ever.  It 
is  not  yet  too  late ;  resume  then  the  ignominy  of 
the  secular  habit,  since  you  cannot  forsake  the 
morals  nor  the  inclinations  of  the  age  :  do  not 
add  to  the  dangers  that  await  you  in  the  world, 
the  crime  of  appearing  there  in  a  sacred  charac 
ter,  which  ought  to  have  divorced  you  from  it  for 
ever:  its  seductions  will  more  than  suffice  to 


104  ON   THE    ESTRANGEMENT  &$C. 

cause  your  destruction,  even  when  the  state  of 
laic  to  which  you  shall  have  returned,  will  make 
it  your  duty  to  remain  in  it:  judge  then  what 
safety  you  can  promise  yourself  if  you  enter  into 
it  against  the  order  of  God,  and  against  the  rules 
of  the  holy  state  which  you  will  have  embraced. 
But  if  in  consecrating  yourself  to  the  holy  mi 
nistry,  you  are  sincerely  resolved  to  put  off  the 
affections,  as  you  lay  aside  the  habit,  of  the 
world;  the  first  time  that  clothed  with  the 
priesthood,  you  shall  hold  Jesus  Christ  in  your 
hands  at  the  sacred  altar,  say  to  him  like  the  just 
Simeon,  to-day :  now  O  Lord  I  shall,  with  joy, 
disappear  for  ever  from  the  world,  and  my  eyes 
shall  close  on  its  profane  objects  without  regret> 
since  they  have  seen  thy  salvation,  and  since 
thou  hast,  this  day,  accomplished  in  me  what 
thou  didst  prepare  for  me  before  the  beginning 
of  ages.  Amen. 


A  DISCOURSE 


THE  AMBITION  OF  THE  CLERGY. 


Ductus  est  Jesus  a  spiritu  in  desertum,  ut  tentarctur 
a  diabolo. 

Then  Jesus  was  led  of  the  spirit  into  the  desert,  to 
be  tempted  of  the  devil. 

MATTHEW,  chap,  iv.  ver.  1. 


THERE  is  not,  my  brethren,  in  the  entire  life 
of  Jesus  Christ,  a  circumstance  which  has  a 
stronger  resemblance  to  your  situation  in  this 
holy  place,  than  the  history  of  his  retreat  and  of 
his  temptations.  On  the  point  of  entering  upon 
the  functions  of  his  ministry,  he  is  conducted 
by  the  spirit  of  God,  into  the  desert:  he  does 
not  as  we  do,  withdraw  himself  from  the  society 
of  men,  to  expiate  by  prayer  and  austerities,  the 
weaknesses,  the  transgressions,  and  the  dissi 
pations,  inevitable  in  ordinary  life;  for  he  had 


106  ON   THE    AMBITION 

but  increased  in  grace  and  wisdom  at  Naza 
reth  :  still  it  seems,  that  on  quitting  the  pater 
nal  roof,  he  dares  not  enter  upon  the  public 
duties  of  his  mission  and  of  his  priesthood, 
without  placing  between  his  divine  lire  and  his 
ministry,  an  interval  of  forty  days  of  retirement 
and  penance. 

But  if  in  his  retreat,  he  places  before  us,  a 
model  to  imitate,  in  his  temptation  he  points  out 
to  us,  the  rocks  to  be  dreaded  in  so  holy  an  en 
terprise.  The  Redeemer,  says  the  Evangelist, 
having  fasted  forty  days,  was  afterwards  hungry  : 
then  the  tempter  approaching  says  to  him  :  com 
mand  that  these  stones  be  made  bread.  This 
proposal  being  rejected,  the  devil  takes  him  into 
the  holy  city,  and  placing  him  on  the  pinnacle 
of  the  temple,  urges  him,  under  the  pretext  of 
confidence  in  God,  to  cast  himself  down  ;  and 
finally  having  failed  in  his  ;  impious  design,  he 
transports  the  Saviour  to  the  top  of  a  very  high 
mountain,  from  which  shewing  him  all  the  king 
doms  of  the  earth,  and  the  glory  thereof,  all 
these  things  says  he,  will  I  give  thee,  if  falling 
down,  thou  wilt  adore  me. 

In  these  three  temptations,  my  brethren,  I 
discover  the  whole  progress  of  a  dangerous  am 
bition,  and  the  various  arts  to  which  the  tempter 


OF   THE    CLERGY. 


107 


has  recourse,  to  seduce  the  ministers  of  the 
Lord  into  a  snare  so  common,,  and  yet  so  little 
known,  at  the  present  day.  For,  in  the  first 
place,  in  order  to  give  a  specious  colour,  to  a 
passion  so  fatal  to  the  ministry,  he  makes  us 
desire  merely  a  modest  competency,  equally  re 
moved  from  indigence  and  wealth :  we  wish 
merely  to  live  ;  to  be  in  a  condition  to  maintain 
our  character  and  station  in  the  world ;  in  a 
word,  he  proposes  to  us,  no  more  than  our  ne 
cessary  bread,  and  nothing  can  appear  more 
equitable  or  moderate.  Die  ut  lapides  isti  panes 
fiant.  In  the  second  place,  having-  seduced  us 
thus  far,  he  soon  persuades  us,  that  while  so 
many  others,  by  their  industry  and  their  ma 
nagement,  rise  to  exalted  dignities,  a  common 
and  obscure  manner  of  life  necessarily  degrades 
us,  in  the  estimation  of  men  :  under  pretext  of 
barely  seeking  an  employment,  worthy  of  our 
time,  and  of  our  talents,  he  makes  us  cast  an  eye 
on  the  first  offices  of  the  ministry  ;  he  trans 
ports  us  in  spirit  to  the  pinnacle  of  the  temple, 
by  raising  our  views  to  the  highest  place  in  the 
sanctuary,  and  bids  us  cast  ourselves  down 
into  the  most  august  and  perilous  situation,  in 
the  vain  hope,  that  God  will  support  us,  in  the 
rash  design,  as  if  God  could  find  his  glory,  in 


108 


ON   THE    AMBITION- 


ambition,  or  bad  promised  to  uphold  teme 
rity  and  folly  :  Statuit  ilium  super  pinnaculum 
templi,  et  dixit  ilti:  mitle  te  dcorsum ;  Augelis 
enim  suis  manda-cit  de  te.  Finally,  the  tempter 
having  compassed  these  designs,  begins  to  be 
less  reserved :  having*  led  us  to  destruction, 
through  a  guilty  path,  he  regards  us  as  a  prey, 
that  can  no  longer  escape  from  his  bonds  :  he 
places  us  on  a  height,  from  vthich  he  discovers 
to  us  the  kingdoms  of  the  world,  and  their 
glory  :  there  are  no  longer  any  bounds  to  our 
ambition  :  at  his  suggestion,  we  grasp  at  all, 
nor  does  he  now  seek  to  justify  our  conduct,  to 
ourselves,  by  any  pretence  of  piety  or  of  zeal  ; 
he  proposes  openly  to  us,  to  become  his  adorers, 
to  sacrifice  to  his  promises,  our  soul  and  our 
salvation,  for  such  is  the  price  of  his  favors  : 
and  he  encourages  us  to  the  contract,  by  the 
example  of  those,  who  have  secured  the  object 
of  their  desires,  by  prostituting  their  homage 
to  his  worship :  Hccc  omnia  tibi  dabo  si  cadens 
adoraveris  me. 

I  intend  then,  on  this  occasion,  to  point  out 
the  dangers  of  these  three  rocks,  over  which 
ambition  conducts  the  clergy,  step  by  step,  to 
the  precipice.  To  three  errors  so  common,,  and 
so  fatal,  I  shall  oppose  three  reflections,  which 


OF  THE   CLERGY,  109 

will  exhibit  them  in  their  true  light,  and  pro 
tect  you  in  every  point,  against  the  arts,  and 
the  enterprises  of  the  tempter.  For  this  pur 
pose,  we  have  only  to  consider  the  ambition 
of  the  clergy,  in  its  object,  in  its  means,  and 
in  its  effects.  In  its  object,  it  is  always  unjust, 
nor  can  it  be  either  palliated  or  excused,  by 
the  plea  that  our  desires  are  moderate,  since 
all  desire  is  criminal :  in  its  means,  it  is  a  guilty 
temerity,  in  which  it  is  vain  to  try  to  cover 
our  conduct  and  attempts,  with  the  pretext  of 
zeal  for  the  glory  of  God,  for  every  attempt  is 
an  impious  intrusion,  an  unjust  and  sacrilegi 
ous  usurpation.  In  its  effects,  it  has  been,  at 
all  times,  a  disgraceful  and  a  fatal  scandal  to  the 
church,  and  one  on  which  it  is  folly  to  appeal 
for  justification,  to  the  practice  of  other  times, 
or  the  example  of  cotemporaries,  as  if  the 
greatness  of  the  evil  could  authorize  its  injus 
tice.  May  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  grant,  my 
brethren,  that  these  interesting  truths  may  fall 
upon  hearts,  disposed  by  grace,  to  value  their 
importance,  and  receive  instruction. 

FIRST    REFLECTION. 

What  is  the  honor  of  the  sanctuary  ?  for  in 
order  to  know,  whether  our  desires  be  lawful, 


110  ON   THE   AMBITION 

\ve  must  first  examine,  what  it  is  that  we  de 
sire.  It  is  in  the  first  place,  says  Saint  Paul, 
an  honourable  servitude,  which  establishes  us 
over  all,  only  to  be  subservient  to  all  :  it  is  a 
laborious,  and  universal  solicitude,  which  places 
in  our  hands,  the  passions,  the  necessities,  the 
weaknesses,  and  the  entire  detail  of  human  mi 
sery  :  it  is  an  overwhelming*  burden,  which 
compels  us,  to  carry  in  our  bosom,  a  whole 
people,  as  a  parent  does  her  child  ;  to  bear  its 
restlessness  and  caprices,  without  disgust ;  to 
endure  its  murmurs  and  ingratitude,  without 
abandoning  it ;  to  restrain  within  t!  e  bounds 
of  duty,  and  unite  in  the  observance  of  pain 
ful  laws,  the  infinite  variety  of  humours,  in 
clinations,  talents,  interests,  and  conditions,  that 
compose  it :  and  redouble  our  cares,  in  propor 
tion  as  they  study  to  render  them  useless  :  it  is  a 
troublesome  elevation,  which  exposes  us  to  the 
eyes  of  the  public,  ajid  which  prevents  even 
things  that  are  lawful,  from  being  expedient, 
by  reason  of  the  weakness  of  our  brethren :  it 
is  a  painful  inspection,  which  obliges  us  to  re 
prove  in  season  and  out  of  season  ;*  which  be 
comes  more  difficult,  and  more  dangerous,  in  pro- 

*  2  Timothy,  c.  iv.  v.  2. 


OF   THE    CLERGY.  Ill 

portion  as  the  morals  of  the  world  become  more 
corrupt;  which.,  in  constituting1  us  the  guardians 
of  discipline,  clothes  us  with  an  authority,,  which 
is  almost  always  unavoidably  exercised  more 
in  refusal  than  in  concession,  and  which  conse 
quently  exposes  us  to  the  hatred  of  the  very 
person s,  whom  we  are  endeavouring  to  save  : 
that  is  to  say,,  it  is  a  state,  of  which  the  cares 
are  infinite  and  ungrateful ;  of  which  the  great 
est  immunity  is  the  obligation  of  setting'  an 
example.,  that  may  serve  as  a  model,  and  in 
which  the  wisest  exercise  of  authority  and  the 
most  disinterested  efforts  of  zeal,  serve  only  to 
produce  murmurs  and  discontent.  But  this  is 
not  what  is  most  terrifying. 

A  sacred  dignity  is,  in  the  second  place,  a  pe 
rilous  commission,  which  renders  us  accounta 
ble,  before  God,  for  an  infinite  number  of  souls, 
whose  salvation  or  destruction,  is,  as  it  were,  our 
work  ;  and  which,  therefore,  besides  our  own 
sins,  makes  us  answerable  for  the  sins  of  those, 
over  whom  we  are  placed  :  it  is  a  formidable  dis 
pensation,  which  places  in  our  hands,  the  mys 
teries  of  God  and  the  entire  fruit  of  the  death 
of  Jesus  Christ,  so  that,  our  slightest  infidelity 
is  a  criminal  abuse  of  his  blood,  and  tends  to 
make  void,  the  inestimable  benefit  of  his  cross: 


ON   THE   AMBITION 

it  is  a  ministry,  which  divides  us,  between  pray 
er  and  solicitude,,  which  makes  it  to  us3  an  es 
sential  duty,  to  preserve  the  love  of  retirement 
and  recollection,  in  the  midst  of  cares  and  em 
barrassments  ;  to  preserve  tliat  unsullied  repu 
tation,  that  shining  innocence,  that  sacerdotal 
modesty,  amidst  all  the  passions  ami  all  the 
weaknesses,  of  which  we  are  the  witnesses  and 
the  depositaries;  which  obliges  us,  to  mingle 
among  men,  and  sometimes  to  enter  the  very 
palaces  of  kings,  and  which,  notwithstanding, 
renders  it  imperative  upon  us,  to  carry  thither 
all  the  simplicity,  all  the  gravity,  all  the  humi 
lity  and  mortification  of  the  desert,  that  we  may 
condemn  by  our  example,  the  corruption  and 
the  ambition  of  those  whom  we  approach  :  it  is 
a  post  of  watchfulness,  in  which,  we  must  have 
the  arms  of  our  spiritual  warfare  continualiv  m 
our  hands  ;  the  sword  of  the  word,  the  buckler 
of  faith  and  doctrine,  to  combat  against  flesh 
and  blood,  against  the  invisible  powers,  against 
the  errors  which  corrupt  the  purity  of  the  sa 
cred  deposite,  and  the  prejudices  and  maxims  of 
the  world,  which  infringe  the  sanctity  of  dis 
cipline,  so  that,  the  abuses  which  we  tolerate 
or  which  we  fail  to  correct,  become  our  trans 
gressions  ;  and  public  disorders  are  charged  to 


OF   THE   CLERGY. 

USj  as  bur  own  crimes.  Now  is  there  upon 
earth  a  situation  of  more  imminent  peril  ?  a 
state,  which  in  the  almost  universal  decay  of  dis 
cipline  and  morals,  ascribes  to  us,  the  guilt  of 
public  disorders,  and  reckons  our  personal  in 
nocence,  as  the  easiest  point  of  our  duty.  Nor 
yet  is  this  all. 

A  place  of  distinction  in  the  church,  is  a  me 
diation  between  heaven  and  earth  ;  a  sacerdotal 
royalty,  which  places  in  our  hands  the  fountains 
of  grace,  the  treasures  of  the  church,  the  keys 
of  life  and  of  death,  of  heaven  and  of  hell  ; 
which  bends  down  to  our  authority,  those  who 
sustain  the  universe ;  which  leaves  to  the  very 
angels,  functions  inferior  to  ours,  and  elevates 
us  above  whatever  is  named  in  heaven  or  on 
earth  :  it  is  a  divine  office,  which  gives  us  au 
thority,  over  Jesus  Christ  himself;  which  ren 
ders  him  obedient  to  us,  even  to  the  mystic 
death  of  the  adorable  sacrifice;  which,  if  1  may 
be  permitted  to  say  it,  puts  us  in  the  place  of 
the  eternal  Father,  and  gives  us  power  to  beget 
his  only  Son  upon  our  altars,  in  the  concealed 
g'lory  of  the  sanctuary;  in  a  word,  which  esta 
blishes  us,  the  visible  gods  of  the  earth.  Now, 
can  there  be  any  office  so  great,  so  holy,  so  sub 
lime?  Let  us  reflect  on  all  these  characters:  of 


-  OX  THE  AMB1TIOX 

all  conditions,  this  is  the  most  painful,  the  most 
perilous,  the  most  divine. 

Now,  in  the  first  place,  i  may  be  pcrmiiird 
to  ask  you  ;  are  you  laborious  enough  to  aspire 
to  an  office,  so  beset  with  pain,  with  anxiety, 
mid  toil  ?  are  you  prepared  to  offer  continual 
violence  to  yourselves,  to  break  down  your  in 
clinations,  to  sacrifice  the  most  innocent  plea 
sures  to  duty,  to  be  all  to  all,  and  not  live  a 
single  moment  for  yourselves?  Can  you,  like 
the  Apostle,  be  in  want,  and  in  abundance;*  in 
reputation  and  reproach  ?  can  you  familiarize 
yourselves  with  what  is  most  difficult  and  seri 
ous  in  your  occupations  ;  bear  up  against  the 
little  success  of  your  labors,  and  so  far  tri 
umph  over  your  nature,  as  to  find  relief  and 
pleasure  in  your  very  fatigues?  Alas!  brought 
up,  for  the  greater  part,  in  uncontrouled  and 
easy  morals,  in  a  life,  which  has  never  acknow 
ledged  any  rule  but  humour,  every  restraint 
operates  upon  you,  as  a  tyranny  ;  the  very  uni 
formity  inseparable  from  this  abode  of  retreat, 
is  to  you  an  insupportable  torment,  and  you 
long  for  the  termination  of  your  stated  course, 
as  the  happy  period  that  is  to  emancipate  you 

*2Cor.  c.  vi.  v.  8. 


OF   THE    CLERGY.  115 

from  all  your  disgusts  and  all  your  sufferings. 
You  are  dissatisfied  with  all  authority  :  what 
ever  requires  regularity  and  attention,  is  little 
suited  to  your  disposition  :  whatever  is  serious, 
shocks  you,  and  whatever  is  not  pleasure  ap 
pears  to  you,  as  a  punishment.  If,  at  an  age,, 
in  which  dependance  is  yet  natural ;  in  which 
the  passions  still  bend  under  the  controul  of  dis 
cipline,  you  are  so  reluctant  in  the  discharge  of 
your  duties,  so  little  disposed  to  counteract  your 
slothful  or  vicious  tendencies,  what  will  you  be 
come,  when  having  shaken  off  the  yoke,  your 
inclinations  will  be  the  only  rule  of  your  desires- 
and  of  your  morals  ?  In  the  temple  of  the  liv^ 
ing  God,  you  will  be  an  idol,  which  will  have 
eyes,  and  see  not ;  a  tongue,  and  speak  not ; 
hands,  and  work  not  ;  feet,  and  yet  remain  idle 
and  immoveable  :  Pastor  et  idolum.*  The  seat 
which  you  will  occupy  in  the  sanctuary,  will 
be  for  you  a  bed  of  indolence  and  luxury:  you 
will  regard  a  holy  dignity,  as  the  end  of  your 
toils  and  the  place  of  your  repose :  you  will 
think,  that  you  have  purchased  it  dearly  enough, 
by  a  short  subjection  and  some  little  of  restraint : 
the  fruit  and  tiowers  you  will  gather  to  yourself, 

*  Zaehary.  c.  xi.  v.  17. 


116  ON   THE   AMBITION 

and  leave  all  the  thorns  to  others :  you  will  en 
ter  into  the  inheritance  of  your  sainted  prede 
cessors,  without  any  design  of  entering  upon 
their  labors :  you  will  be  jealous  of  t!<e  honors 
of  the  ministry  whilst  you  despise  its  functions; 
in  a  word,  yon  will  turn  exclusively  to  your 
own  account,  a  sacred  title,  which  has  been  es 
tablished  solely,  for  the  benefit  of  the  faithful. 
Thus  then,  although  the  dignity  of  the  sanc 
tuary,  were  merely  a  laborious  and  painful  mi 
nistry,  it  would  be  rashness  in  you  to  pretend 
to  it. 

But,  in  the  second  place,  it  is  a  ministry  sur 
rounded  by  rocks  and  perils.  Now  I  ask  you, 
are  you  sufficiently  confirmed  in  piety  to  aspire 
to  a  state,  all  the  functions  of  which,  are  so 
delicate,  and  dangerous,  and  in  which,  those  who 
appear  to  us  the  strongest,  are  every  day,  so 
miserably  shipwrecked?  Alas!  you  know  not 
yet,  how  to  govern  the  house  of  your  own  heart, 
how  then  will  you  govern  the  church  of  God  ? 
you  are  still  a  reed,  that  yields  to  every  blast  ; 
how  then  will  you  become  a  pillar,  to  support  the 
weight  and  majesty  of  the  temple?  you  slumber 
and  suffer  thorns  and  briars  to  grow  up  in  your 
own  heart,  how  then  will  you  watch  over  the  en 
tire  field  of  Christ,  to  prevent  the  enemy,  from 


OF  THE   CLERGY,  117 

sowing  cockle  amongst  the  good  seed  ?  Perhaps, 
you  yet  stumble  in  the  ways  of  God,  and  need  a 
holy  conductor  to  raise  you,  from  time  to  time,, 
from  your  falls ;  how  then  will  you  sustain  and 
confirm  those,  who  are'  weak?  Perhaps,  an  oc 
casion  still  hurries  you  along,  a  breeze  casts  you 
to  the  ground,,  the  least  breath  of  the  serpent 
poisons  your  heart  and  puts  an  end  to  all  your 
projects  of  virtue ;  a  single  look  defiles  you  ;  a 
single  worldly  and  licentious  conversation  de 
stroys  in  you,  the  fruit  of  many  months  of  re 
treat  ;  a  single  raillery  of  a  reviler  of  piety  and 
religion,  forces  from  you  a  criminal  assent;  in 
a  word,  scarcely  have  you  advanced  a  few  steps 
jn  the  paths  of  God,  when  you  basely  fall  back, 
under  the  weight  of  your  weaknesses,  and  pas 
sions  ;  how  then  will  you,  like  the  good  shepherd, 
bear  on  your  shoulders,  the  strayed  and  tired 
sheep,  back  to  the  fold  ?  If  the  laborious  nature 
of  the  ministry  stamps  the  character  of  folly,  on 
the  ambitious  pretensions  of  your  sloth  and  of 
your  laziness,  do  not  its  perils,  when  compared 
with  your  fragility,  render  your  rashness  still 
more  conspicuous,  still  more  criminal  ? 

But,  in  the  third  place,  the  honor  of  the  sanc 
tuary  to  which  you  pretend,  is  an  angelical,  and 
divine  dignity.  Now  are  you  sufficiently  pure 


118  ON   THE   AMBITION 

and  holy,   to   aspire   to  its   sublime  functions? 
What  is  the  story  of  your  morals  and  of  your 
life?  what  have  been  your  early  years,  and  what 
are  you  even  at  this  day  ?  Judge  yourself,  in  the 
presence  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  draw  forth  from 
the  treasure  of  your  heart,  the  new  and  the  old. 
As  yet,   scarce  capable  of  knowing-  God,   you 
have  been  capable  of  offending  him  :  your  bud 
ding  inclinations  have  been  so  many  crimes  :  as 
far  back  as  you  can  ascend  towards  your  child 
hood,  you  will  find  the  origin  of  your  corrup 
tion,   nor   can  your   memory  discover  in   your 
very  infancy,  a  single  object  to  repose  on,  but 
defilement :  you  are  of  the  number  of  those,  of 
whom  the  Royal  Prophet  says,   (hat  they  have 
gone  astray  from  the  womb    of  their  mother.* 
Without  penance,  without  remorse,  without  in 
terruption,  you  have  rolled  on  from  precipice  to 
precipice,  you  have  abode  in  the  vilest  passions 
and  have  a  thousand  times,  profaned  the  temple 
of  the  living  God,  within  you.     Your  guilt  does 
not  consist  of  rare   transgressions,   into   which 
the  frailty   of  youth  and   the  seduction   of  oc 
casion,   has   sometimes   hurried   you,  and   from 


*  AH  en  at  i  sunt  peccatares  a  vulva,  erraverunt  ab 
utero. — Psalm.  57.  v.  4. 


OP  THE   CLERGY. 


119 


which,  you  have  been  immediately  brought  back, 
by  a  sense  of  religion  and  of  the  fear  of  God : 
guilt  with  you,  has  been  a  fixed  and  tranquil 
habit,  the  very  bottom  of  tfie  abyss,  a  state  in 
•which  crime  entered  into  your  ordinary  actions, 
and  into  the  very  plan  and  texture  of  your  life  ; 
and  if  the  vigilance  of  superiors  or  human  con 
siderations,  have  sometimes  compelled  you  4o 
exhibit  some  external  signs  of  religion,  by  the 
participation  of  the  sacraments,  you  have  ap 
proached  them,  perhaps,  but  to  fill  up  the  mea 
sure  of  your  iniquity,  and  from  a  sinner  as  you 
were,  have  become  a  profaner  of  what  is  holiest 
in  religion,  am!  most  venerable  upon  earth. 

Yet,  afl  covered  with  leprosy  as  you  still  are, 
and  -unworthy  of  appearing  amongst  the  simple 
faithful  at  tbe.  foot  of  the  altar,  exhaling  the 
stench  of  your  passions  and  diffusing  around,  an 
odor  of  death ;  having  no  other  mark  of  a  vo 
cation  to  the  dignity  of  the  sanctuary,  than  a 
great  name  in  the  world,  the  second  place  in  the 
house  of  your  fether,  the  credit  of  friends,  the 
disorders  of  youthful  licentiousness,  and  criminal 
desires  of  elevation,  you  have  the  impious  tetne- 
rity  to  pretend  to  the  supreme  honor  of  the  mi 
nistry,  for  which  angels  themselves  would  not 
be  sufficiently  pure ;  to  claim  the  recompense 


120  ON    THE    AMBITION 

of  piety  and  innocence ;    to  aspire  to  a  divine 
state,  which,  the  tears  and  merits  of  the  longest 
and  most  sincere  penance,  could   not  formerly 
attain  ?  The  man,  who  presents  himself,  with  an 
ordinary   dress,   at  the  banquet  of  the  gospel, 
is  rejected,  although  he  had  been  invited,  and 
sought    no    distinction,    amidst    the    crowd    of 
guests ;  and  you  would  rashly  approach,  not  in 
the    garb    of  ordinary    morals,    but    altogether 
covered   with    defilement ;    not  to  seat  yourself 
amongst  the  other  faithful,   but  to  preside,   to 
distribute  the   holy  banquet,  and  sanctify  it  by 
the  words  of  benediction  ?  What  will  be  the  in 
dignation  of  the  father  of  the  family  at  your 
entrance?  and  what  are  you  coming  to  do,  in 
the  temple  of  God,  the  very  walls  of  which,  will 
be  seized  with  horror,    on   beholding  the    idol 
raised  up  with  honor  in  the  holy  place  ? 

Although  I  had  no  other  reasons  to  adduce, 
than  those  already  stated,  and  which  are  perso 
nal  to  you,  still  would  they  be  sufficient  to  prove 
that  your  desires  of  elevation  are  rash  and  crimi 
nal.  But  I  go  yet  farther,  and  will  suppose  you 
to  possess  all  those  qualifications,  of  which  you 
are  destitute  ;  all  that  love  and  patience  of  labor, 
requisite  for  a  laborious  ministry ;  all  that  soli- 
flity  of  virtue,  necessary  for  perilous  functions; 


OF   THE    CLERGY. 


131 


and  in  fine,  all  that  innocence  and  sanctity  of 
morals,  demanded  for  a  sacre'l  dignity  ;  and  I 
say,  that  if  you  aspire  to  the  honor  of  the  mi 
nistry,  you  are  unworthy  of  it,  and  that  all  your 
virtues,  which  might  have  otherwise  prepared 
you  for  it,  become  so  many  vices  to  exclude 
you.  Listen,  and  you  shall  be  convinced  of 
this  truth  :  an  ecclesiastic,  say  the  laws  of  the 
emperors,  should  be  so  far  removed  from  all 
desire  and  all  solicitation,,  as  to  render  it  neces 
sary  to  seek  him  out,  and  compel  him  by  vio 
lence,  to  enter  the  church  :  quceratur  cogcndus: 
as  to  resist  the  prayers,,  and  entreaties,  even  of 
those  who  have  authority  over  him :  rogatus  re- 
cedat  :  as  to  conceal  himself  from  their  designs 
and  pursuit:  invitatus  refugiat ;  and  that  the 
necessity  of  obedience  alone,  excuse  his  consent: 
sola  illi  suffragetur  neccvsitas  excusandi;  for  he 
is  assuredly  unworthy  of  the  honor  of  the  priest- 
Jjood,  if  he  does  not  receive  it  against  his  will : 
Profecto  cnim  indignus  est  sacerdotio,  nisifuerit 
ordinatus  inmtus,  These  are  not  the  scruples 
or  the  fears  of  a  recluse,  nor  the  exaggerated 
expressions  of  some  servant  of  God,  too  deeply 
penetrated,  perhaps,  by  a  sense  of  the  greatness, 
and  the  excellence  of  his  vocation ;  nor  a  dis- 
£ourse  of  instruction,  in  which  the  vehemence 


ON  THE 


of  zeal  or  the  importance  of  the  subject  may 
sometimes  carry  the  preacher  beyond  the  limits 
of  strict  truth;  they  are  laws,  every  term  of 
which  is  measured,  in  order  to  define  a  precise 
obligation  ;  those  who  speak  are  Princes  ftnd 
Cesars,  little  accustomed  to  overdo,  or  exagge 
rate  the  duties  of  religion,  and  who  in  matters 
regarding  morals  or  discipline,  can  be  rarely 
reproached  with  rigor  or  excess.  But,  you  will 
say,  that  if  those  only,  who  refuse  and  flee 
away,  deserve  to  be  selected,  there  would  be  no 
longer  any  one  to  fill  the  vacant  places  of  the 
ministry.  There  would,  it  is  true  be  none  ;  but 
the  reason  is,  that  we  choose  only  those,  who- 
press  forward  to  offer  themselves,  and  who  make 
greater  efforts,  and  use  greater  arts,  to  arrive  at 
the  honors  of  the  sanctuary,  than  the  clerics 
of  former  times  did,  to  avoid  them.  There 
would,  you  say,  be  no  longer  any  to  be  found, 
to  fill  the  vacant  places  :  but  the  spirit  of  God 
has  not  abandoned  his  church,  and  there  are 
formed  in  it  every  day,  and  will  be  formed  in  it, 
till  the  end  of  time,  vessels  of  election  to  bear 
his  name,  before  the  kings  and  nations  of  the 
earth;  and  the  interior  succession  of  faith,  of 
piety  and  of  charity  in  his  ministers,  will  no- 
more  fail,  than  the  exterior  succession  of  the 


OF   THE    CLERGY. 


123 


ministry  itself:  leave  to  him  the  care  of  select 
ing,  himself,  those  whom  he  has  destined  for 
the  work  of  the  gospel:  he  will  be  at  no  difficul 
ty  to  make  them  known.  Do  not  you,  by  your 
guilty  temerity  anticipate  his  choice ;  do  not 
come  to  present  yourself  in  the  place  of  those, 
whom  he  had  chosen,  nor  usurp  a  dignity,  for 
which  he  was  preparing  in  secrecy,  a  faithful 
servant ;  do  not  derange  the  order  of  his  voca 
tion,  and  of  his  eternal  designs.  The  church 
never  wants  true  pastors,  hut  when  daring  ami 
impious  ambition  usurps  their  places. 

But,  if  the  laws  of  the  emperors  are  so  -se 
vere,  upon  the  ambition  of  the  clergy,  judge 
what  must  be  the  strictness  and  the  severity  of 
the  holy  Doctors  of  the  church.  Saint  Chry- 
sostom  and  Saint  Gregory  establish  it,  as  an 
incontestable  principle  in  this  matter,  that  all 
desire  of  elevation  in  the  house  of  God  is  a  cri 
minal  disposition,  which  closes  the  sanctuary 
against  us,  and  the  most  infallible  mark,  that  we 
are  not  called  to  its  ministry.  An  enlightened 
charity,  says  Saint  Augustine,  chooses,  at  once, 
the  safety  of  obscurity  and  retreat,  and  it  is 
only  when  compelled,  that  it  assumes  as  a  pain 
ful  yoke,  the  honor  of  the  pastoral  charge,  and 
the  peril  of  its  responsibility.  All  suppose  that 


ON    THE    AMBITION 

we  cannot  enter  into  the  church,  that  kingdom 
of  Jesus  Christ,  but  by  the  way,  and  through  the 
merit,  of  compulsion,  and  their  conduct  confirms 
their  doctrine.  What  resistance  did  I  not  make, 
says  Saint  Ambrose,  when  I  was  raised  to  the 
Archbishopric  of  Milan?  Not  being  able  to 
alter  the  choice  of  my  electors,  I  entreated,  at 
least,  some  delay,  but  their  desires  were  not  to 
be  resisted  nor  deferred ;  and  if  there  has  been 
precipitancy  in  my  elevation,  it  is  the  fault  of 
those,  who  have  done  violence  to  my  wishes  : 
Vis  cogentis  est.  How  great,  says  Saint  Augus 
tine,  was  the  torrent  of  tears  which  I  shed  at 
the  foot  of  the  altar,  when  the  venerable  Valerius 
forced  me  to  become  his  coadjutor  in  the  church 
of  Hippo?  the  violence  to  which  I  was  then 
constrained  to  yield,  could  be  nothing  else  than 
the  punishment  of  my  former  sins.  I,  says 
Saint  Paulinas,  in  the  account  of  his  ordination, 
I,  who  am  but  a  worm  and  not  a  man,  wa.s 
dragged  to  the  altar,  surrounded  by  a  multitude 
that  bore  down  my  voice  and  my  resistance,  and 
in  spite  of  the  ardent  desire  which  I  felt  to 
make  this  cup  pass  far  from  me,  I  was  forced 
to  say  to  the  Lord,  thy  will,  not  mine  be  done. 
I  should  never  end,  were  I  to  relate  here, 
all  that  might  be  collected  on  this  subject. 


OF   THE   CLERGY. 

Antiquity  abounds  in  such  examples  :  then  it 
was,  as  is  \vell  known,  that  pious  solitaries, 
through  an  excess  of  zeal,  attempted  to  mutilate 
their  very  persons,  that  they  might  for  ever  ex 
clude  themselves  from  the  proffered  honors  of 
the  church.  Such  was  the  rule  of  the  saints, 
the  conduct  of  our  predecessors,  and  such  has 
been  the  spirit  of  the  church  in  every  age. 

To  fear,  to  refuse,  to  fly,  was  not  in  those 
times,  deemed  heroic  virtue ;  it  was  the  received 
law,  a  common  maxim,  a  universal  rule,  a  usage 
as  generally  established  as  that  which  now 
prevails  of  soliciting  and  of  presenting  our 
selves  ;  and  this  holy  dread  was  carried  so  far, 
that  the  church  of  Africa  was  obliged  to  enact 
penalties  against  those  clerics,  whose  excessive 
humility,  prevented  them  from  consenting  to 
their  ordination,  even  when  regularly  called  by 
their  Bishop.  Fortunate  agesi  alas,  at  this 
day,  we  need  nothing,  but  the  thunders  of  the 
church  against  usurpers,  and  barriers  to  arrest 
the  aspirings  of  impious  temerity.  And  what 
is  most  surprising  is,  that  in  an  age  in  which  we 
speak  only  the  language  of  antiquity;  in  which 
we  pretend  to  be  so  entirely  disabused  of  the 
ignorance  and  credulity  of  the  middle  ages;  in 
which  we  take  credit  to  ourselves,  for  having 


ON   THE    AMDITION 

brought  back  our  discipline  and  our  morals  to 
the  model  of  our  fathers,  in  which  a  superior 
criticism  has  cleared  up  whatever  was  obscure 
in  the  annals  of  the  church,  we  deceive  our 
selves,  on  a  point  so  evident,  and  so  marked 
in  characters  of  light,  in  all  the  writing's  of 
the  ancients  ;  and  we  regard  either  as  doubtful 
or  extravagant,,  the  most  constant  rule,  the  most 
uniform  practice,  the  most  firmly  established 
usage  to  be  found  in  the  wide  range  of  tradi 
tion.  What  ought  to  surprise  us  is,  that  these 
certain  and  incontestable  maxims  are  regarded 
as  the  oflspring  of  piety  and  zeal,  which  how 
ever  fitted  to  edify  the  inmates  of  a  house  of 
retreat,  the  nature  of  man,  and  the  circum 
stances  of  the  times,  render  it  hopeless,  to  re 
duce  to  practice.  What,  in  fine,  ought  to  sur 
prise  us,  is,  that  we  have  resigned  to  certain 
souls  of  more  exalted  or  more  stern  virtue,  all 
those  pious  delicacies  of  fear  and  of  repugnance, 
as  if  timidity  were  a  singularity  and  not  the 
essential  spirit  of  our  vocation  ;  as  if  it  were 
only  a  refinement  of  piety,  and  not  piety  and 
religion  itself. 

After  this,  I  shall  not  stop  to  explain  the  ex 
pression  of  the  Apostle,  touching  the  desire  of 
the  episcopacy  ;  it  is  a  mean  and  vulgar  objec- 


OF  THE  CLERGY, 

lion,  which  hardly  deserves  a  place,  save  among 
$he  proverbs  of  the  vicious  and  the  ignorant.  It 
ia  true  that  Saint  Paul  has  not  recourse  to  that 
divine  and  burning  eloquence,  of  which  he  was 
so  illustrious  a  master,  to  combat  this  desire, 
but  that  on  the  contrary,  he  speaks  of  it  with 
composure,  if  not  with  commendation.  But  give 
me  tyrants  and  executioners  :  dignities,  poor,  la 
borious,  despised :  Bishops,  obliged  to  live  by 
the  labor  of  thek  own  hands :  give  me  an  infant 
church  unprovided  with  labourers  :  give  me  those 
apostolic  men,  who  had  received  tiie  first  fruits 
of  the  spirit :  in  a  word,  give  me  in  the  sanc 
tuary,  a  title  of  honor  and  pre-eminence  which 
leads  but  to  the  scaffold :  and  in  all  these  cir 
cumstances,  desire  if  you  will,  to  sacrifice  your 
self  for  your  brethren  :  this,  indeed,  may  be  per 
mitted  you,  you  will  then  desire  a  good  work. 
The  Apostle  is  addressing  him&elf  to  Timothy, 
who  terrified  by  the  greatness  of  his  ministry, 
had  need  to  be  encouraged  ;  and  were  he  to  speak 
m  these  latter  times,  he  would  most  certainly 
have  used  oilier  language,  as  in  fact,  lie  him 
self  assures  us,  that  the  different  dispositions  of 
those,  to  whom  he  directed  his  instructions,  com 
pelled  him,  sometimes,  to  do.  I  need  not  add, 
with  Saint  Jerome,  that  Saint  Paul,  indeed  says. 


ON    THE    AMBITION 

we  desire  a  holy  thing,  but  he  does  riot  say,  the 
desire  of  it  is  holy  ;  with  Saint  Chrysostom,  that 
for  fear  of  countenancing  the  rash  ambition  of 
those,,  who  might  desire  the  honors  of  the  sanc 
tuary,  he  enters  into  a  detail,  of  the  episcopal 
virtues,  to  make  them  comprehend  the  difficulty 
of  acquiring  them  as  well  as  the  presumption, 
at  which  that  man  must  have  arrived,  who  would 
dare  to  wish  for  a  place,  to  which  these  virtues 
ought  to  be  inseparably  attached  :  or  with  Saint 
Cyprian,  that  in  declaring,  that  a  bishop  ought 
to  be  irreprehensible,  chaste,  meek,  temperate, 
the  Apostle  seems  to  relax,  to  content  himself 
with  exacting  common  virtues,  not  daring  to 
propose  those  angelical  and  superior  virtues, 
which  are  necessary  for  the  first  dignities,  lest 
the  despair  of  being  able  to  attain  them,  should 
discourage  and  put  away  those  who  were  called 
to  the  ministry,  and  thus  impede  the  progress 
of  the  gospel,  by  leaving  the  churches  without 
pastors.  Such  is  the  manner,  in  which,  the 
Apostle  speaks  of  the  desire  of  the  episcopacy, 
encouraging  their  zeal  and  allaying  the  pious 
fears  of  the  inferior  clergy,,  and  exhorting  them 
not  to  decline  so  excellent  and  so  holy  a  work, 
at  the  moment  when  the  church  had  the  greatest 
need  of  their  services. 


OF  THE   CLERGY.  129 

But  we  aspire  not,  you  will  say,  to  the  first 
dignities  of  the  church;  we  desire  merely  such 
a  title  as,  iri  securing  a  moderate  revenue,  will 
afford  the  means  of  upholding  the?  respect,  and 
maintaining  the  decency,  of  our  character,  in 
a  private  and  unostentatious  manner. 

To  this  I  might  answer  at  once,  that  such  is 
the  ordinary  language  even  of  those,  ^who  set  no 
bounds  to  their  ambition,  but  who  in  the  outset, 
Would  blush  to  disclose^  the  full  extent  of  their 
wishes  arid  of  their  projects.  I  might  add 
moreover,  that  it  is  a  snare  of  the  devil;  that 
cupidity  does  not  easily  set  bounds  to  its  cra 
vings  ;  that  the  tempter  proposes  to  you,  at  first, 
but  bread,  that  he  may  lead  you  farther  by  de 
grees,  and  aAvaken  in  you  those  higher  preten 
sions  of  which  he  beholds  the  seeds  in  your 
heart.  The  Israelites  asked,  at  first,  for  simple 
and  ordinary  food  to  appease  the  hunger  that 
tormented  them,  and  the  Lord  sent  them  the 
Manna.  This  relief  which  they  had  begged 
appeared  sufficient,  and  they  received  it  with 
thankfulness;  but  soon  after,  new  desires  begsm 
to  arise,  and  meats  the  most  delicious,  which 
God  rained  down  upon  them,  could  not  in  the 
end,  satisfy  their  immoderate  appetites.  But  I 
reply  first,  that  if  you  labour  in  the  field  of 

K 


130  ON    THE   AMBITION 

Jesus  Christ,  you  have  a  right  to  the  fruits  which 
you  cultivate :  serving-  the  altar,  you  must  live 
by  the  altar.     Now,  what  you  can  receive  with 
justice,  you  may  desire  without  guilt:  but  you 
are  a  mercenary,   if  you  suffer  this  just  retribu 
tion,   to  become  the  end  and  the  motive  of  your 
toils:  it  ought  to  be  the  support  and  the  recom 
pense  of  labor,  but  it  should  not  be  the  exclu 
sive  and  unworthy  object  of  the  labourer.    Yet, 
functions  are  desired  merely  for  the  sake  of  the 
retributions  which   are  attached  to  them  :    the 
best  paid,  are  the  most  sought:  there  are  but 
few  to  solicit  those,  in  which  there  is  nothing  to 
be  gained  but  the  glory  of  God,  and  the  salva 
tion  of  our  brethren.     A  spirit  of  sordid  inte 
rest  enters  into   the    most   sacred  offices :    the 
sublime  functions  of  the  priesthood  are  appreti- 
ated  like  the  mean  and  mechanical  efforts  of  the 
artist ;  and  more  regard  is  had  to  the  sum  which 
they  may  produce,  than  to  the  good,  which  they 
may  enable  their  possessors  to  perform  :  Thus 
under  the  plea,  that  we  are  permitted  to  live  by 
the  altar,  we  carry  on  a  species  of  traffic  on  the 
very  altar,  and  by  the  meanness  of  our  views, 
accustom   our   people  to  make   no    distinction, 
between  the  wages  of  the  artisan  or  the  hus 
bandman,  and  the  salary  of  a  Priest  of  the  Most 
High.     I  reply,  in  the  second  place,  that  if  you 


OF   THE    CLERGY.  131 

seek  the  titles  and  revenues  of  the  sanctuary, 
merely  as  a  means  of  passing  your  years  in  ease 
and  tranquillity,  your  desires  are  criminal  and 
unjust:  the  goods  of  the  church  are  a  holy 
stipend,  to  which  you  can  have  no  rght,  except 
in  proportion  as  you  serve  in  its  spiritual  war 
fare.  I  reply  in  fine,,  thai  if  you  have  no  talent 
to  serve  the  church  ;  if  you  can  confer  no  other 
honor  on  your  ministry  than  that  of  a  name, 
high  in  the  world,  the  church  knows  no  one, 
according  to  the  flesh  :  it  is  not  name,  but  talent, 
that  can  profitably  discharge  her  functions,  and 
nothing  can  confer  honor  upon  her,  but  the 
gifts  of  God  arid  what  may  contribute  to  the 
salvation  of  the  faithful.  Wherefore,  you  ought 
not  to  desire  titles  and  revenues,  which  you 
could  not  enjoy  without  crime.  And  can  you 
believe  that  you  are  justified,  in  desiring  the 
riches  of  the  sanctuary,  because  perchance  your 
birth  and  connexions  place  them  within  your 
grasp?  Can  you  believe,  that  the  human  consi 
derations  which  may  have  swayed  your  patrons 
in  the  choice  of  you,  will  become  motives  of 
preference  with  God  himself;  or  that  the  result 
of  an  abuse,  can  give  you  title  or  security? 
Now,  if  desires  alone  be  criminal,  the  man 
oeuvres,  by  which  they  are  carried  into  effect, 
cannot  be  innocent 


ON    THE    AMBITION 


SECOND    REFLECTION. 

Ambition  begins  by  desire,  it  proceeds  by  in 
trigue.  The  tempter  having  seduced  us  to  make 
the  first  step,  raises  our  desires  to  the  top  of 
the  temple,  flatters  us  with  the  hope  that  angels 
will  stand  by  us,  to  prevent  our  fall,  and  co 
vering  our  ambition  with  the  cloak  of  religion 
and  of  zeal,  he  hides  from  us  the  abyss,  which 
he  is  digging  under  our  feet  and  into  which 
we  are  about  to  be  precipitated. 

But  first,  my  brethren,  every  step  here  is  a 
sacrilegious  intrusion  ;  you  glorify  yourself: 
you  do  not  wait  till  you  are  called  by  him  who 
called  Aaron :  you  run,  though  no  one  has  sent 
you.  The  gift  for  which  you  intrigue,  is  a 
celestial  and  perfect  gift :  it  must  come  down 
from  the  Father  of  lights  :  if  then,  you  pretend 
to  render  yourself  worthy  of  it,  by  meanness, 
by  attentions,  by  assiduities,  by  flattery,  by  so 
licitation,  you  are  a  profane  wretch,  who  at 
tempts  to  buy  the  gift  of  God :  whatever  you  do 
in  reference  to  the  dignity  to  which  you  aspire, 
is  at  bottom  a  criminal  price,  a  sacrilegious 
sum,  which  you  offer  for  it  :  you  traffic  for  a 
thing  that  is  holy,  by  your  compliances,  your 
condescensions,  your  assiduities  :  you  are  then 


OF   THE    CLERGY.  133 

treacling  in  the  footsteps  of  the  profane  and  exe 
crable  Simon.  Alas  !  says  Saint  Chrysostom, 
what  difference  doth  it  make,  that  you -offer  not 
money :  are  not  your  entreaties,  your  solicita 
tions,  your  canvassings,  as  so  much  gold,  which 
you  proffer  ?  It  was  said  to  that  wretch,  may 
thy  money  perish  with  thee  ;  and  it  will  be  said 
to  thee,  adds  this  father,  may  thy  canvas,  thy 
solicitations,  thy  intrigues,  in  a  word,  thy  ambi 
tion,  go  to  perdition  with  thee,  since  thou  hast 
thought  that  thou  couldst  obtain  the  gift  of  God, 
by  the  base  arts  of  human  passion  :  Ambitio 
tua  tecum  sit  in  perditionem,  quoniam  putastl 
ambitu  humano,  donum  Dei  possideri. 

But  you  flatter  yourself,  that  you  will  be  use 
ful  to  the  church.  Heretofore,  God  did  not 
bring  to  his  church,  services  that  would  dis 
grace  her,  and  he  abundantly  knows  how  to 
provide  for  her  wants  by  the  means  which  him 
self  has  established.  What  a  disposition  to  be 
useful  to  the  church,  to  enter  the  sanctuary  in 
spite  of  her  and  in  violation  of  her  laws  ! 
Although  you  were  to  possess  all  the  talents 
best  fitted  to  do  her  honor,  your  sole  intru 
sion  would  render  them  not  only  useless,  but 
scandalous  and  fatal  to  her.  We  must  indeed 
have  a  very  profane  idea  of  the  care  which  God 


134  ON   THE    AMBITION 

takes  of  his  church,  if  we  suffer  ourselves  to  bft 
deceived  into  a  belief,  that  we  can  be  useful 
to  her  by  ambition  and  crime.  But  besides,  if 
you  feel  so  great  a  zeal  to  be  serviceable  to  the 
church,  do  not  defer  your  services  till  you  shall 
have  obtained  her  dignities  and  her  wealth  :  she 
has  many  offices  and  many  wants,  in  which  you 
may  display  your  zeal  in  her  cause  :  mast  you 
be  raised  to  the  highest  rank,  as  the  only  condi 
tion  on  which  you  will  give  her  the  benefit  of 
your  talents  and  your  toils?  Is  this  the  price,  at 
which  you  promise  your  labors  to  the  church? 
It  is  not  then  her  interests  that  you  regard,  but 
your  own  :  it  is  not  then  the  church  which  you 
wish  to  serve,  but  it  is  the  church  which  you 
•wish  to  make  subservient  to  your  unjust  and  in 
famous  cupidity. 

Wherefore,  my  brethren,  let  us  not  seduce 
ourselves  :  let  us  not  mistake  some  light  senti 
ments  of  religion,  which  float  as  it  were,  on  the 
surface  of  our  hearts,  for  our  true  inclinations. 
For  often,  says  Saint  Gregory,  those  who  seek 
to  be  raised  to  the  pastoral  charge,  propose  to 
themselves  pious  labors  and  works  of  holiness  ; 
and  although  ambition  alone  be  the  very  soul  of 
their  projects,  they  yet  deceive  themselves  into 
the  persuasion,  that  they  shall  perform  the  no- 


OP   THE   CLEROY. 

blest  services.  Thus  whilst  on  the  surface,  there 
appears  to  them  nothing  but  holy  and  laudable 
intentions,  there  lurks  in  the  bottom  of  the  heart, 
a  real  intention,  a  criminal  desire  of  elevation: 
JFitque  ut  aliud  in  imis  intentio  supprimat,  aliud 
tractantis  anitrue  superficies  cogitationis  ostendat; 
but  the  illusion  is  gross,  and  rapidly  dissipates 
and  vanishes  of  itself.  In  effect,  were  the  dig 
nities  of  the  church  poor,  as  formerly,  full  of 
labor,  without  distinction,,  without  pomp,  ex 
posed  fto  hunger,  to  nakedness,  persecution  and 
death ;  would  you  esteem  them  worthy  of  your 
concern  and  of  your  anxiety  ?  If  you  were  to  be 
exclusively  devoted  to  prayer  and  to  the  minis 
try  of  the  word,  to  bear  the  burden  of  the  day 
and  the  heats  :*  if  the  honor  of  the  sanctuary 
held  out  nothing  more  flattering  than  such  du 
ties,  would  you  so  much  envy  the  lot  of  an 
Apostle  ?  Alas !  we  should  then  see  your  eager 
ness  rapidly  abate ;  your  intrigues  and  solicita 
tions  changed  into  fears,  resistances  and  frivo 
lous  assertions  of  your  weakness,  and  unwor- 
thiness  :  in  a  word,  were  you  to  be  merely  a 
fisher  of  men,  the  command  of  the  bark  would  ap 
pear  to  you,  an  object  little  worth  your  seeking. 

*  Matthew,  c.  xx.  v.  12. 


130  ON   THE   AMBJTION 

But  ypu  are  aware,  that  the  sea  on  which 
you  are  about  to  embark,  conceals  treasures  in 
its  bosom,  and  that  with  the  nets  of  Peter,  you 
will  find  money  in  the  very  entrails  of  the  tribes 
of  the  deep;  and  in  this  expectation  it  is,  that 
you  wish  to  govern  the  ship,  and  succeed  to  the 
office  of  the  Apostle. 

But  if  at  bottom,  our  very  intentions  belie 
the  vain  pretext  which  we  form  to  ourselves, 
that  we  shall  be  useful  to  the  church,  the  pre 
tensions  which  we  put  forth  to  ensure  the  success 
of  our  designs,  belie  it  still  more  forcibly ;  for 
the  claims  on  which  we  pretend  to  the  honors, 
and  the  dignities  of  the  sanctuary,  are  claims 
which  the  church  has  at  all  times  execrated, 
which  are  incompatible  with  her  spirit,  and 
against  which  she  has  not  ceased  to  groan  and 
protest,  in  every  age.  And  truly  my  brethren, 
what  are  the  titles  which,  at  this  day,  we  see 
urged,  as  giving  a  right  to  the  honors  and  to 
the  formidable  ministry  of  the  temple?  a  great 
name  and  illustrious  birth ;  as  if  in  Jesus  Christ, 
there  were  a  distinction  between  the  noble  and 
the  vulgar;  as  if  flesh  and  blood  ought  to  pos 
sess  the  kingdom  of  God  and  the  inheritance  of 
Christ :  as  if  the  vain  splendor  of  a  name,  which 
perhaps,  has  begun  to  be  illustrious  by  the  am- 


0F   THE   CLERGY.  137 

bition  and  crimes  of  your  ancestors,,  could  with 
their  blood,  confer  on  you,  the  humility,,  mo 
desty,  z,eal,  innocence,  and  holiness  which  they 
themselves  never  possessed :  as  if  a  distinction 
altogether  human,  which  draws  in  its  train, 
pride,  effeminacy,  luxury,,  prodigality,  and  mo 
rals  ever  opposed  to  the  spirit  of  the  gospel, 
could  render  you  worthy  of  our  ministry.  No, 
my  brethren,  the  church  has  need,  not  of  great 
names,  but  of  great  virtues  :  the  nobility  which 
our  jexalted  functions  require,  is  a  nobility  of 
soul,  a  heroic  heart,  a  sacerdotal  courage,  which 
neither  threats,  nor  promises,  nor  the  favor,  nor 
disgrace  of  the  world,  will  ever  be  able  to  shake  : 
the  only  plebeianism  that  dishonours  our  minis 
try,  is  a  sinful  life,  corrupt  morals,  worldly 
inclinations;  a  base  and  grovelling  heart,  that 
sacrifices  duty  and  conscience  to  human  favor, 
find  which  in  seeking  only  to  please  men,  ren 
ders  its  base  possessor  no  longer  fit  to  be  consi 
dered  a  servant,  much  less  a  minister,  of  Jesus 
Christ.  Since  the  time  in  which  the  Cesars  and 
the  masters  of  the  world,  submitted  their  necks 
to  the  yoke  of  faith,  the  church  has  had  sufficient 
pf  external  splendor,  and  needs  not  to  borrow 
it  from  her  ministers ;  the  protection  of  sove 
reigns  ensures  her  tranquillity,  and  secures  to 


138  OX   ?HE  AMBITION 

her  the  respect  and  obedience  of  the  people ; 
and  it  is  in  this  regard,  that  the  powers  of  the 
earth  are  useful  to  her.  But  the  nobility  ancl 
temporal  greatness  of  her  ministers,  are  a  bur 
den  to  her.  She  is  compelled  to  support  their 
extravagance,  and  their  pride ;  and  to  see  funds 
consecrated  to  sacred  uses  and  destined  to  alle 
viate  the  miseries  of  the  unfortunate,  squandered 
to  decorate  the  empty  phantom  of  name  and  of 
birth.  So  her  founders  and  her  most  illustrious 
pastors  were,  at  first,  taken  from  amongst  the 
last  of  the  people  :  and  the  ages  of  her  glory 
were  those  ages,  in  which  her  ministers  were 
but  the  off-scouring  of  the  world ;  and  from  the 
moment,  in  which  the  high-born  and  the  power 
ful  seating  themselves  on  the  pontifical  throne, 
introduced  the  splendor  and  pageantry  of  the 
world  into  the  temple,  she  has  begun  to  dege 
nerate.  I  am  far  from  insinuating,  that  virtue 
united  to  illustrious  descent,  does  not  confer 
honor  on  the  ministry  :  it  gives  weight  to  au 
thority,  and  credit  to  piety  :  the  respect  of  the 
populace,  worn  away  by  the  baseness  and  un- 
worthiness  of  many  pastors,  may  sometimes  re 
quire  to  be  renewed  and  upheld  by  this  sort  of 
distinction,  and  it  is  undoubtedly  true,  that  those 
who  unite  noble  birth  to  great  piety ;  who  add 


OF  THE    CLERGY.  139 

distinguished  talents  and  brilliant  virtues  to  an 
ancient  and  respectable  name,  deserve  a  prefer 
ence.  But  the  flesh  of  itself  profiteth  nothing: 
it  often  becomes  even  a  subject  of  shame  and 
of  scandal  to  the  church;  it  is  the  spirit  that 
quickeneth,  it  is  piety  that  avfcileth  unto  all 
things. 

To  the  claims  that  arc  drawn  from  name  and 
from  birth,  are  added  those  which  are  supposed  to 
spring  from  the  wounds  and  the  services  of  your 
relatives:  they  are  alledged  as  so  many  titles, 
that  give  you  an  incontestable  right  to  the  dig 
nities  of  the  church  i  you  pretend  that  the  in 
nocence,  the  repose  and  tranquillity  of  the  sanc 
tuary,  ought  to  be  the  prize  of  conflagrations 
and  carnage  •  that  the  church  should,  as  it  were, 
defile  her  dignities  and  her  offices,  by  the  very 
blood  which  she  so  much  abhors  ;  that  the  wars 
and  calamities  over  which  she  weeps,  should  be 
vewarded  with  a  ministry  of  reconciliation  and 
peace  ;  that  scars  which  may  be  an  honor  to 
our  country,  should  give  the  right  of  inflicting 
a  deep  «,nd  disgraceful  wound  on  the  church  ; 
and  that  valor  in  the  field  should  give  pastors  of 
charity  and  humility  to  the  flock.  Military  ser 
vices  may  obtain  for  us  rank  in  the  army  of  our 
^prince,  but  not  in  that  of  Jesus  Christ :  they 


ON    THE    AMBITION 

may  give  generals 'to  the  forces,  and  governor* 
to  the  provinces,  but  not  pastors  to  the  church : 
valor  may  be  decorated  with  those  ex-ernal 
marks  of  honor,  which  are  awarded  by  kings, 
and  which  confer  distinguished  rank  i".  the  state, 
but  not  with  the  order  and  the  honor  of  the 
priesthood,  of  which  Christ  is  the  founder  and 
the  chief:  in  a  word,  his  blood,  which  has  saved 
and  reconciled  all,  ought  not  to  be  made  the  re 
compense  of  merit,  which  shines  only  in  the 
dissensions,  and  lias  for  object  the  extermination, 
of  mankind.  Can  the  wars  in  which  your  rela 
tions  have  obtained  renown,  have  become  for 
you,  the  marks  of  vocation  for  a  profession,  the 
principal  function  of  which.,  is  to  announce 
peace  on  earth  to  men  :  can  their  hands  still 
reeking  with  the  blood  of  the  enemy,  have  any 
right  to  place  you  in  a  temple,  which  the  Lord 
would  not  permit  David  to  build,  because  his 
wars  and  his  battles,  though  undertaken  by  the 
command  of  God,  had  polluted  his  hands,  and 
that  by  the  shedding  of  so  much  blood,  they 
.could  be  no  longer  pure  enough,  to  raise,  and 
consecrate  a  house  to  the  God  of  holiness  and 
peace?  What  is  there  in  common,  between  the 
soldier  of  this  world,  and  the  soldier  of  Jesus 
Christ:  between  the  din  of  arms,  and  the  inno- 


OF   THE    CLERGY.  141 

cence  of  the  sanctuary :  between  the  victories 
gained  over  men  by  the  sword  of  vergeance  and 
death,  and  those  to  be  gained  over  sinners  by 
tiie  sword  of  the  word  of  life  and  salvation  ?  So 
the  piety  of  the  country  has  strongly  felt  the  in 
justice  of  such  motives  of  preference  :  services 
performed  for  the  state,  are  no  longer  paid  off 
with  sacred  dignities  ;  and  the  glorious  achieve 
ments  of  the  father,  are  no  longer  remembered 
i«  the  distribution  of  tl*e  honors  of  the  sanctu 
ary,  if  his  children  have  not  rendered  them 
selves  worthy  of  them,  by  the  rectitude  of  their 
lives,  and  by  talents  useful  to  the  church. 

What  shall  I  say  of  the  other  arts,  by  which 
guilty  ambition  strives  to  secure  its  object? 
Shameful  services  rendered  to  the  powerful :  in 
decent  employments,  exercised  in  the  houses  of 
the  great.  To  the  disgrace  and  scandal  of  the 
church,  we  see  men  become  ministers  of  Jesus 
Christ,  without  any  other  merit,  than  that  of  be 
ing  the  unworthy  ministers  of  their  projects  and 
passions.  The  Apostolic  canons  depose  the  bi 
shop,  who  should  have  recourse  to  the  secular 
powers,  to  obtain  the  honor  of  the  episcopacy  ; 
and  what  anathema  would  they  not  have  pro 
nounced  against  wretches,  who  would  profit  of 
their  very  vices,  to  elevate  themselves  to  the 


M3  ON   THE   AMBITION 

prelacy  ?  The  scriptures  regard  Jason  and  Al- 
eimus  and  so  many  other  Pontiffs  as  intruders* 
and  usurpers,  because  they  obtained  their  priest 
hood  by  their  subserviency,,  and  by  basely  earn 
ing  the  favor  of  the  tyrants,  who  were,  in  those 
days,  masters  of  Judea.  In  the  history  of  the 
people  of  God,  their  names  are  held  in  execra 
tion,  because  to  obtain  the  high  priesthood,  they 
favoured  the  idolatry  and  superstition  of  these 
pagan  kings,  and  not  only  imitated  the  manners, 
and  adopted  the  usages,  of  the  Greeks  and  thQ 
Gentiles,  but  attempted  to  introduce  even  their 
impious  and  profane  worship  into  the  holy  city. 
Those  who  enter  into  the  dignities  of  the  church 
through  a  guilty  path,  are  capable  of  every  en 
ormity.  Paul  was  an  Apostle  not  by  the  favor 
of  men,  nor  by  the  choice  of  any  man  ;  and  it 
is  for  this  reason  alone,  that  he  had  a  right  to 
call  himself  an  Apostle  of  Jesus  Christ.  Alas! 
my  brethren,  how  small  is  the  number  of  thosQj 
who  at  this  day,  could  give  the  saine^  marks 
of  their  vocation,  and  the  same  signs  of  their 
Apostleship.  Almost  all  vocations  ar$  human, 
and  there  are  but  few,  in  which  the  favor  of 
men  has  not  had  a  greater  share,  than  the  spirit 
of  God.  Complaints  are  in  consequence,  every 
day,  made  of  the  degeneracy  of  pastors,,  and  of 


X)F   THE   CLERGY,  143 

the  abuses  which  dishonour  the  holy  ministry. 
I  have  said  elsewhere,  and  I  cannot  repeat  it 
too  often,,  that  it  is  bad  vocations,  which  pro^ 
<iuce  such  a  number  of  bad  pastors.  When  in 
former  times,  they  were  chosen  by  the  church, 
the  sanctity  of  their  lives  did  honor  to  their 
ministry ;  since  they  began  to  choose  themselves., 
every  thing  has  changed. 

Shall  I  add  in  this  place,  my  brethren,  or  not 
rather  draw  the  veil  over  those  arts  and  indig 
nities  which  debase  the  priesthood  ;  for  ambition 
is  a  vice  that  leads  to  every  crime,  and  that  has 
recourse  to  every  artifice ;  shall  I  add,  that  to 
obtain  the  recompense  of  virtue,  we  go  so  far 
as  to  counterfeit  its  exterior ;  we  add  imposture 
and  hypocrisy  to  crime ;  we  put  on  the  appear 
ance  of  modesty  and  innocence,  whilst  withiij 
we  are  filled  with  rottenness  and  corruption ; 
we  employ  fraud  and  artifice  to  become  minis 
ters  of  truth ;  and  that  too,  in  a  country,  in 
which  piety  alone  gives  a  right  to  the  honors  of 
the  church,  and  in  which  virtue  is  sought  in  the 
most  distant  and  obscure  retreats,  into  which 
she  may  withdraw  for  concealment.  Alas  my 
God!  the  Ambroses,  and  so  many  other  holy 
pastors  defamed  themselves,  and  covered  them 
selves  publicly  with  the  shame  of  vice,  that 


\\\  ON    THE    AMBITION 

they  might  appear  unworthy  of  the  sacred  mi 
nistry  and  escape  the  proffered  honors  of  the 
sanctuary;  ami  at  the  present  day,  to  obtain 
them,  we  pretend  to  virtues  that  are  not  ours ; 
we  put  on  the  appearances  of  piety,  which  we 
despise  in  secret ;  we  call  ourselves  living,  whilst 
in  thy  sight  we  are  dead ;  we  disguise  ourselves 
as  lambs,  that  we  may  get  admittance  among 
the  flock,  where  we  kill  and  destroy  instead  of 
tending  and  guarding  the  fold. 

THIRD    REFLECTION. 

This  would  be  the  place  to  combat  the  third 
pretext,  of  which  the  tempter  makes  use,  to 
justify  the  ambition  of  the  clergy  ;  namely  uni 
versal  usage,  and  the  example  of  all  those  by 
whom  we  are  surrounded.  He  lifts  the  ambi 
tious  soul  to  the  top  of  a  lofty  mountain,  and 
there,  as  from  a  favourable  point  of  view,  he 
shows  her  the  kingdoms  of  the  earth  and  all 
their  glory,  what  is  passing  in  them,  the  paths 
which  lead  to  dignities  and  greatness,  the  suc 
cess  and  elevation  of  all  who  have  chosen  these 
paths  ;  and  dazzling  her  with  the  fascinating  il 
lusion  of  the  spectacle,  he  encourages  and  con 
firms  her  by  the  example  of  the  multitudes  en 
gaged  in  the  busy  and  splendid  scene.  But  as 


OF    THE    CLERGY. 


145 


I  have  already  had  occasion  to  speak  elsewhere 
of  this  pretext,  I  shall  close  this  discourse  with 
two  reflections. 

The  first  is,  that  usage  never  can  prescribe 
against  the  laws ;  that  abuses  are  not  the  more 
lawful,  because  they  are  become  common  ;  that 
the  number  of  those  who  infringe  the  law,  in 
creases  indeed  the  merit  of  those  who  observe, 
but  cannot  justify,  those  who  transgress,  it;  that 
we  ourselves  have  been  established  to  correct 
abuses  and  bring  them  back  to  the  law,  not  to 
accommodate  the  law  to  abuses,  nor  set  the  ex 
ample  of  a  conduct  and  a  prejudice,  which 
damns  the  greater  part  of  men  ;  that  ages  may 
relax,  discipline  decay,  and  morals  change,  but 
that  truth  remains  for  ever :  moreover  that  cor 
ruption  is  not  so  universal  but  that  there  yet  re 
main  some  pastors  after  God's  own  heart,  who 
never  bend  the  knee  to  Baal,  and  in  whom  the 
tradition  of  fear,  of  resistance,  of  (light,  and  of 
estrangement  from  the  honors  of  the  temple, 
that  has  marked  the  conduct  of  the  virtuous  in 
every  age,  is  yet  preserved,  and  whom  we  may, 
therefore,  take  as  a  model ;  and  that  in  fine  we 
every  day,  behold  those  who  appeared  most  am 
bitious,  most  eager,  most  ardent,  in  the  prose 
cution  of  promotion,  from  the  moment  in  which, 


ON    THE    AMBITION 

touched  by  the  truths  of  salvation,  they  begin 
to  take  more  serious  resolves,  and  more  solid 
measures  for  eternity ;  we  behold  them,  I  say, 
changing  their  pursuits  with  their  morals ;  fly 
ing  the  same  honors  after  which  they  had  run  ; 
dreading  the  very  burden  which  they  had  so 
much  desired;  and  fearing  as  a  misfortune,  what 
they  had  so  earnestly  begged  as  a  favor,  and 
manifesting  in  their  convers'on,  the  necessity 
and  the  wisdom  of  preferring  duty  to  custom, 
the  example  of  the  saints,  to  the  prejudices  of 
the  multitude,  and  the  laws  of  the  church,  to 
the  abuses  of  these  latter  times. 

But,  you  will  say,  men  of  the  greatest  inte 
grity  and  virtue,  do  not  scruple  these  things. 
Judge  no  man ;  but  distrust  a  piety  which  pub 
licly  violates  and  tramples  on  the  wisest  laws  : 
do  not  justify  open  transgressions  by  a  virtue 
which  either  belies,  or  deceives,  itself.  Jesus 
Christ  himself  has  prophesied,  that  times  should 
come,  when  truth  should  be  so  weak,  and  error 
so  powerful,  that,  if  it  were  possible,  the  very 
elect  would  be  borne  along  by  the  torrent. 
There  are  so  many  false  just,  who  carefully 
avoid  those  open  excesses  to  which  the  world 
attaches  infamy,  but  who  make  no  scruple  of 
those  arts  and  pursuits,  which  the  world 


Off   THE   CLERGY.  14? 

thorizes,  but  which  have  ever  been  a  subject  of 
horror  to  the  church  ;  their  soul  is  less  an  ob 
ject  of  concern  than  their  reputation,  they  are 
regular,  edifying1.,  would  not  wish  to  dishonour 
their  character  in  the  eyes  of  men  ;  but  as  their 
heart  is  corrupted  by  ambition,  they  reckon  as 
nothing  what  degrades  them  only  in  the  sight 
of  God:  such  are  the  just  of  the  world,  but  they 
are  not  the  just  who  live  by  faith. 

But  if,  whilst  every  body  els£  is  urging  his 
claims,  and  forwarding  his  pretensions,  we  alone 
remain  quiet,  it  is  certain  that  we  shall  be  for 
gotten.  Even  this  very  fear  is  itself  criminal 
and  proceeds  from  a  corrupted  heart.  The  saints 
dreaded  to  be  chosen,  and  that  very  dread  ren 
dered  them  worthy  of  the  choice  of  the  church : 
you  fear  that  you  will  be  forgotten,  you  are  then 
unworthy  of  being  chosen,  and  your  election 
would  be  the  greatest  of  misfortunes  both  for 
yourself  and  for  the  church.  Do  not  then,  any 
longer,  dread  to  be  forgotten  ;  dread  rather  lest 
the  justice  of  God,  irritated  at  the  criminal  dis 
positions  of  your  heart,  should  cause  a  choice  to 
fall  upon  you,  which  would  be  your  ruin,  and 
punish  the  temerity  of  your  desires  by  their  ac 
complishment.  You  fear  that  you  will  be  for 
gotten  ?  but  it  is  for  this  very  reason  that  you 


148  ON    THE    AMBITION 

ought  to  conceal  yourself.  As  long  as  you  da 
not  dread  the  formidable  burden  of  the  minis 
try,  fly:  tremble  lest  it  should  be  offered  to  you; 
abide  in  silence  and  retreat,  till  God  changes 
your  heart,  till  he  plucks  up  that  root  of  am 
bition  and  bitterness  that  defiles  it:  till  he  makes 
you  feel  the  dangers  of  the  honors  and  the  of 
fices  of  the  church,  and  makes  you  sensible  of 
the  holiness  required  for  them  ;  and  begin  not 
to  feel  confidence  till  you  begin  to  fear  them. 

But  besides,  if  God  has  designed  you  for  a 
place  of  honor  in  his  sanctuary,  he  can  surely 
accomplish  his  intention,  without  your  co-ope 
ration  and  intrigues,  he,  who  shakes  the  spheres, 
if  necessary  to  conduct  one  of  the  elect  to  that 
situation  marked  out  for  him  in  the  eternal  de 
crees.  He  destines  Moses  to  deliver  his  people 
from  the  servitude  of  Egypt;  and  it  is  in  vain 
that  the  hardened  race  destroy  all  the  new-born 
children  of  the  Hebrews  ;  in  vain  is  he  exposed 
on  the  Nile  :  in  vain  does  the  daughter  of  Pha 
raoh  bring  him  up  in  the  learning  of  Egypt, 
and  prepare  him  for  the  first  dignities  in  that 
illustrious  kingdom.  The  designs  of  God  upon 
him  are  accomplished  by  the  very  obstacles 
which  ought  to  have  prevented  their  effect :  he 
is  preserved  from  the  general  carnage  of  the 


OF   THE    CLERGY.  149 

Hebrew  children,,  from  the  fury  of  the  waters, 
from  the  dangers  of  education  in  the  palace  of 
Pharaoh,  and  in  spite  of  so  many  risks,  and 
through  the  midst  of  so  many  perils,  God  con 
ducts  him  to  the  ministry  to  which  he  had  called 
him.  Saul  was  to  become  a  vessel  of  election  : 
the  Lord  opens  the  heavens  and  descends  ;  lie 
casts  him  to  the  ground,  and  he  makes  him  an 
Apostle,  at  the  very  time  he  was  persecuting  the 
church,  and  with  arms  in  his  hands,  was  breath 
ing  the  destruction,  and  thirsting  for  the  blood, 
of  the  disciples.  It  would  be  in  vain  for  you  to 
fly  to  the  extremities  of  the  earth,  or  go  down 
to  the  bottom  of  the  abyss  •  his  hand  would  not 
fail  to  draw  you  back,  were  your  elevation  or 
talents,  necessary  for  the  consummation  of  his 
elect.  Look  to  Jonas :  he  was  destined  to  be 
the  instrument  of  the  conversion  of  Niniveh ;  the 
dangers  attendant  on  such  a  ministry  alarm 
his  weakness ;  he  flies  this  sinful  city,  and  even 
buries  himself  in  the  deep  :  he  is  shut  up  in 
the  belly  of  a  monster;  but  the  abyss  hears  and 
obeys  the  voice  of  the  Lord  ;  gives  up  the  ti 
mid  prophet,  and  Niniveh  is  converted.  Leave 
to  God  the  care  of  your  destiny ;  he  himself 
well  knows  how  to  accomplish  the  designs  which 
he  has  upon  you  ;  if  your  elevation  be  his  good 


150  ON   THE   AMBITION 

pleasure,  it  will  also  be  his  own  work;  render 
yourself  worthy  of  it  by  retreat,  by  fear,  by 
flight,  by  lively  sentiments  of  your  own  unwor- 
thiness,  for  these  are  the  steps  by  which  he  is 
pleased  to  conduct  his  own,  to  the  highest  places 
in  his  temple. 

But,  you  will  add,  when  persons  of  a  certain 
rank  and  standing  are  not  advanced  in  their  pro 
fession,  they  are  dishonoured  in  the  estimation 
of  the  world.  But  if  the  oblivion,  in  which 
you  are  left  be  the  consequence  of  the  uncle- 
rical  and  perhaps  even  licentious  life  which  you 
have  led,  it  is  not  the  oblivion,  but  the  morals 
which  have  caused  it,  that  dishonours  you.  Even 
according  to  the  world,  the  real  honor  of  a  per 
son  consecrated  to  God,  is  to  live  in  a  manner 
worthy  of  his  calling.  Do  not  dread  that  the 
world  will  cover  you  with  reproach,  as  long  as 
you  shall  exhibit  to  it,  the  example  of  regu 
larity,  of  modesty,  and  of  perfect  estrangement 
from  all  solicitation  and  intrigue  :  it  is  not  so 
unjust  as  you  would  make  it :  were  you  in  such 
circumstances  to  be  forgotten,  the  world  itself 
would  promote  you  by  its  wishes  and  its  esteem  ; 
the  public  voice  would  repay  with  interest,  the 
injustice  which  the  partial  distribution  of  digni 
ties  had  done  you  :  the  comparisons  which  it 


OF   THE   CLERGY. 


151 


would  not  fail  to  make  between  you  and  those 
preferred  to  you,  would  confer  a  new  honor  on 
you ;  the  world  which  is  already  disposed  enough 
to  censure  its  masters,,  would  be  delighted  to  be 
able  to  say  with  an  appearance  of  reason,  that 
intrigue,  favor  and  chance  had  more  to  do  than 
merit  in  their  choice;  and  the  oblivion  in  which 
you  might  have  been  left,  far  from  dishonouring 
you  in  the  world,  would  secure  to  you  a  higher 
consideration  than  you  before  enjoyed,  and  lend 
a  brighter  lustre  to  your  virtues.  Dignities  con 
fer  no  honor ;  they  often  serve  but  to  render  our 
vices  and  our  dishonor  the  more  conspicuous  : 
what  truly  honours,  is  that  merit  alone,  which 
renders  us  worthy  of  precedence  and  of  com 
mand. 

In  fine,  the  last  reflection  is,  that  we  are  the 
less  authorized  to  plead  the  common  practice  in 
justification  of  our  canvassing  and  intrigues,  as 
this  would  be  to  glory  in  the  sliame  and  the  dis 
grace  of  our  body.  For  you  say,  that  the  road 
to  distinction  has  been  altered,  and  that  we  no 
longer  live  in  those  times,  when  clericks  in  their 
various  offices,  could  each,  by  his  zeal  and  his 
fidelity  to  his  duties,  attract  the  notice  and  es 
teem,  and  ensure  the  suffrages  and  the  choice, 
of  the  clergy  and  the  people.  Alas !  my  bre- 


152  ON    THE    AMBITION 

threhj  faithful  pastors  never  knew  the  read  to 
preferment;  they  were  acquainted  with  the  paths 
in  which  they  might  hope  to  avoid,  not  with 
those  in  which  they  might  expect  to  find,  dis 
tinction.  But  whence  comes  it  that  this  road 
has  been  altered?  is  it  not  because  the  pastors 
themselves  have  changed  ?  Can  we  make  an 
apology  of  what  condemns  us,  or  alledge  the 
opprobrium  of  the  church  in  our  justification? 
and  in  effect,  what  do  we  say,  when  we  con 
tend  that  the  road  to  distinction  has  been 
changed  ?  We  say,  that  whilst  the  clergy  were 
untainted  by  ambition,  when  they  had  no  other 
share  in  their  own  elevation,  than  their  refusal 
and  their  tears,  morals  were  pure,  discipline  re 
spected,  dignitaries  modest,  the  ministry  ho 
noured  ;  learning,  sanctity,  zeal  and  talents  rare 
ly  left  without  their  recompense  :  it  is  thus  that 
the  Ch ry sos torn s,  the  Gregorys,  the  Basils,  the 
Augustines  were  given  to  the  church ;  but  that 
since  ambition  and  intrigue  have  opened  a  pas 
sage  to  the  altar,  and  that  the  dignities  of  the 
sanctuary  have  become  the  prey  of  the  most 
eager  and  the  most  daring;  ah!  it  is  since, 
that  the  ministry  was  to  be  seen  without  ho 
nor,  authority  become  despicable,  ordinances 
compelled  to  bend  to  circumstances  and  inte- 


OF   THE   CLERGY.  153 

rests,  functions  contemned,  laws  worn  away  bj 
repeated  relaxations,  the  most  venerable  dis 
cipline  of  our  fathers  become  a  point  of  his 
tory  or  criticism,  so  little  trace  of  it  is  to  be 
found  in  our  morals  !  It  is  since,  that  the  sub 
limity  of  the  priesthood  was  to  be  seen  drag;- 
ging  itself  indecently  along  in  the  palaces  of 
kings;  pontiff's  of  the  Most  High  bending  their 
sacred  head  to  the  favor  of  the  minister,  and 
of  the  great;  debasing  their  dignity  by  cares 
and  attentions,  which  are  an  object  of  derision 
and  of  censure  even  to  the  world  itself;  exhi 
biting  to  the  court,  not  the  firmness  and  the  in 
trepidity  of  Ambroses,  but  the  baseness  and  con 
descension  of  courtiers  ;  and  retaining  of  their 
sacred  character  merely  what  seemed  necessary 
to  bestow  a  value,  or  rather  to  heap  ridicule,  on 
the  meanness  of  their  servile  and  unworthy  ho 
mage  :  it  is  since,  that  pomp  has  been  seen  to 
become  a  suitable  and  necessary  part  of  a  mi 
nistry  of  humility  ;  the  patrimony  of  the  poor, 
the  prize  of  sin  :  the  offerings  of  the  faithful, 
that  is  to  say,  the  sacred  revenues,  squandered  in 
the  support  of  vanity  and  voluptuousness,  in  the 
indulgence  of  humour,  of  caprice  and  sensu 
ality,  in  inflaming  and  gratifying  the  worst  pas 
sions.  Every  thing  has  felt  and  every  evil  has 


154  ON   THE    AMBITION 

attended  the  uncanonical  entry  of  the  clergy 
into  the  honors  of  the  ministry ;  it  is  the  fixed 
point,  the  fatal  epoch,  from  which  we  may  date 
all  the  misfortunes  of  the  church ;  it  is  the  im 
pure  source,  from  which  have  sprung  all  the 
abuses  and  disorders  over  which  she  mourns  ; 
it  is  a  worm,  which  not  content  to  gnaw  the 
leaves,  eats  iuto  the  very  root  of  the  evange 
lical  tree,  the  figure  of  the  church,  withers  it* 
verdure,  and  its  beauty,  and  destroys  both  its 
health  and  its  fruitfulness  ;  it  is  a  defilement, 
which  corrupts  the  very  fountain  of  the  minis 
try,  and  the  only  remedy  which  the  church  can 
expect  for  her  sufferings;  and  her  sorrows,  is  that 
the  same  spirit  which  formed  her  first  pastors, 
would  mercifully  deign  to  inspire  their  suc 
cessors. 

Wherefore,  my  brethren,  the  common  prac 
tice,  far  from  encouraging,  should  humble  and 
confound  us,  should  make  us  weep  before  God, 
over  the  mortal  wounds,  which  the  ambition  of 
the  clergy,  every  day  inflicts  on  the  church,  and 
persuade  us  but  the  more,  that  the  very  desire 
of  sacred  dignities  is  a  crime  ;  that  intrigues 
and  solicitations,  are  sacrilegious  intrusions,  and 
•in  fine,  that  so  crying  an  abuse,  however  au 
thorized  by  usage  and  example,  is  our  confu- 


OF   THE   CLERGY.  155 

»ion  and  disgrace.  Open,  O  Lord,  our  hearts 
to  truths  so  ancient,  and  yet  so  new  ;  raise  our 
faith  above  the  practice  by  which  we  are  sur 
rounded;  bring  us  back  to  the  standard  of  those 
happy  ages,  in  which  thy  holy  maxims  were  yet 
in  use ;  and  teach  us  to  view  with  fear,  the  ex 
cellence  and  the  sanctity  of  that  ministry,  of 
which  we  are  altogether  unworthy,  if  we  do  not 
fly  from  it,  and  tremble  under  the  sacred  hand 
that  imposes  upon  us  so  heavy  and  so  awful  a 
Jnirden.  Amen. 


A  DISCOURSE: 

ON 

COMMUNION. 


Accepit  Jesus  panes;  et  cum  gratias  egisset,  dis- 
tribuit  discurabentibus. 

Jesus  took  the  loaves  ,  and  when  he  had  given  thanks, 
lie  distributed  to  them,  that  were  seated. 

JOHN.  chap.  vi.  ver.   11. 


IT  is  not  enough,  says  Saint  Augustine,  ex 
plaining  this  part  of  the  gospel,  to  consider 
what  is  illustrious  and  wonderful  in  the  actions 
of  the  Redeemer,  and  seek  in  his  miracles, 
merely  so  many  incontestable  proofs  of  his  mis 
sion  and  of  his  doctrine.  Miracles  in  this  point 
of  view,  are  for  infidels  only,  who  need  to  be 
convinced,  and  not  for  the  faithful  whom  grace 
has  rendered  docile,  and  who  have  already  cap 
tivated  their  minds  under  the  glorious  yoke  of 
faith.  The  latter^  continues  this  father,  should 


<XN    COMMUNION.  157 

look  for  instruction  rather  than  conviction,  in  the 
miraculous  works  of  Christ :  they  should  unfold 
the  mystery,  and  not.  confine  their  attention  to 
the  examination  of  its  certitude ;  should  descend 
into  the  depth  and  understanding-  of  these  divine 
operations,  so  fruitful  of  admonition,  and  not 
be  content  with  admiring  the  splendor  of  their 
surface :  for  if  rightly  understood,  they  have 
their  language,  and  it  is  only  to  degenerate 
and  carnal  disciples,  that  they  are  as  parables 
and  enigmas. 

Let  us  apply  this  rule  to  ourselves,  and  seek 
to  discover  that  instruction  which  our  blessed 
Saviour  has  given  us  in  the  stupendous  miracle 
of  the  multiplication  of  bread :  let  us  inves 
tigate  the  sense  concealed  under  the  letter,  and 
see  whether  in  feeding,,  like  Moses  of  old,  a 
famished  multitude,  with  miraculous  bread  in 
the  desert,  he  did  not  intend  to  trace  for  us  a 
figure  of  that  heavenly  bread,  which  he  was  one 
<lay,  to  multiply  on  our  altars,  to  relieve  the  ne 
cessities  of  his  followers,  in  the  barren  and  sor 
rowful  wilderness  through  which  they  journey. 

What  should  induce  us  to  believe  it,  is,  that 
we  may  remark  in  all  the  actions  of  the  people 
before  the  performance  of  the  miracle,  those 
dispositions  which  should  prepare  us  for  a  wor- 


158  ON 

thy  communion ;  and  in  the  relation  of  what 
follows  the  prodigy,  the  fruits  which  we  should 
gather  from  so  holy  a  mystery  :  to  these  I  crave 
your  most  earnest  attention. 

In  the  first  place,  our  divine  Redeemer,  see 
ing  the  multitude  assembled,  begins  by  healing 
those  who  laboured  under  any  infirmity  and 
needed  his  assistance :  Et  eos  qui  cura  indige- 
bant,  sanabat. 

In  the  second  place,  after  having  healed,  he 
teaches,  them ;  speaks  to  them  of  the  kingdom 
of  God,  strengthens  and  accustoms,  them,  to 
listen  with  interior  attention  to  his  words,  and 
in  fine,  purifies  them  by  the  sanctity  of  his  pre 
sence,  and  the  grace  of  his  instructions :  Et 
loquebatur  ittis  de  regno  Dei,  et  ceepit  iltos  do^ 
cere  multa. 

In  the  third  place,  Christ  does  not  multiply 
the  loaves,  till  the  people  is  very  hungry :  he 
waits  till  the  day  is  far  spent,  till  the  hour  of 
dinner  is  past,  and  the  fatigue  of  the  journey 
and  the  sterility  of  the  place,  make  the  simple 
multitude  sigh  for  their  necessary  sustenance: 
JDesertus  est  locus,  et  hora  jam  proderut;  wide 
ememus  panes  ut  manducent  hi! 

Finally,  he  makes  them  sit  down  on  the  grass, 
and  after  having  raised  his  eyes  to  heaven,  and 


©N   COMMUNIOW.  159 

rendered  thanks  to  his  Father,,  he  multiplies  by 
his  sacred  benediction,  the  five  loaves  and  th« 
fishes,  and  distributes  them  to  the  people:  but 
before  eating,  he  orders  them  to  be  seated  on  the 
grass.  Behold  to  the  letter,  all  the  disposition* 
which  we  should  bring  to  a  worthy  communion. 

The  result  of  this  prodigy,  is,  in  the  first 
place,  that  all  this  multitude  is  filled:  Mandu- 
caverunt  omnes  et  saturati  sunt.  In  the  second 
place,  so  great  is  the  abundance  that  many  frag 
ments  remain,,  which  Jesus  orders  them  to  gather 
that  they  may  not  be  lost :  Colligite  qu&  supera- 
verunt  fragments  nepereant.  In  the  third  place, 
the  people  are  so  struck  with  the  greatness  of 
the  prodigy,  so  delighted  with  this  miraculous 
sustenance,  that  they  will  have  no  other  king 
but  Christ :  Jesus  ergo  cum  cognovisset  quia 
venturi  essent  ut  rapercnt  eum  et  facerent  eum 
regem.  Now,  these  are  precisely  the  fruits, 
which  we  should  collect  from  the  holy  commu 
nion . 

In  the  exposition  of  this  gospel,  I  propose  to 
myself,  to  follow  simply,  the  design  which  the 
spirit  of  God  seems  to  have  had  in  view — to 
point  out  the  dispositions  by  which  we  should 
prepare  for  communion,  and  the  advantages 
which  we  should  derive  from  it.  To  avoid  too 


1GO 


ON    COMMUNION. 


great  length,  I  shall  treat  but  the  first  part, 
The  subject  is  truly  important  for  all  who  are 
already  engaged,  in  virtue  of  their  sacred  cha 
racter,  to  ascend  every  day  to  the  altar;  or  who 
by  the  rules  of  a  religious  profession  or  the 
peculiar  sanctity  of  a  preparation  for  the  minis 
try,  are  obliged  to  approach  the  bread  of  life, 
more  frequently  than  the  rest  of  the  faithful. 

FIRST    DISPOSITION. 

The  first  disposition  pointed  out,  in  the  story 
of  this  multitude,  is,  that  before  feeding  them 
with  the  miraculous  bread,  Christ  cured  all  those 
who  had  need  of  being  healed :  Et  cos  qui  cura 
indigebant  sanabat.  We  must  then  be  cured, 
before  we  dare  to  participate  of  the  celestial 
bread  ;  and  the  necessity  of  this  disposition  is 
founded  on  the  sanctity  of  the  sacrament,  its 
nature,  its  properties,  the  end  of  its  institution, 
and  such  has  been  in  every  age  the  practice  of 
the  church.  Lazarus  was  raised  from  the  dead, 
unbound,  and  purified  from  the  corruption  which 
he  had  contracted  in  the  abode  of  death,  before 
lie  was  received  at  the  table  with  Christ,  among 
the  guests  at  the  supper  in  Bethania.*  If  he 

*  John.  c.  xii.  v.  2. 


ON    COMMUNION. 


161 


>vho  was  defiled,  had,  contrary  to  the  ordinance 
of  the  law,  eaten  of  the  flesh  of  the  pacific  vic 
tim,  before  he  was  cleansed,  he  was  to  be  cut 
oft0  from  among  his  people.*  And,  in  effect,, 
dost  thou  exact  too  much,  O  my  God,  when 
thou  requires!  of  us  to  purge  the  temple  of  our 
bodies  from  its  profanations  before  thou  descend- 
est  to  fill  it  with  the  majesty  of  thy  glory,  or 
when  thou  commandest  us  to  purify  our  flesh 
from  its  stains  and  pollutions  before  thou  comest, 
as  it  were  to  incarnate  thyself  in  it ;  thou  in 
whose  presence  the  angels  are  not  pure,  and  be 
fore  whom  our  very  justice  is  full  of  defilement? 
It  is  then  necessary,  according  to  the  expression 
of  the  gospel,  that  the  house  be  cleansed  and 
set  in  order,  to  receive  the  King  of  Glory ;  that 
the  sepulchre  in  which  we  are  to  deposite  the 
body  of  Christ,  be  new  and  without  rottenness 
or  infection  ;  that  the  altar  on  which  we  are  to 
offer  the  Lamb  without  spot,  be  not  defiled  by 
the  oblation  of  unclean  animals ;  that  Dagon  be 
cast  from  it  to  the  ground,  in  order  that  the  ark 
of  the  covenant  may  repose  on  it  with  dignity. 
Who  does  not  know  that  life  and  death,  grace 
and  sin,  Christ  and  Belial,  the  mystery  of  sal- 

*  Levit.  c.  vii.  v.  20. 
M 


162 


ON    COM  MINION. 


vation  and  the  mystery  of  iniquity,  the  blood  of 
the  alliance  and  the  fornications  of  Babvlon, 
cannot  dwell  together?  But  if  all  know  and 
agree  that  we  should  be  healed  before  approach 
ing  to  him,  who  is  the  resurrection  and  the  life, 
all  are  not  equally  instructed  in  the  conditions 
that  should  accompany  the  cure,  and  without 
which  it  is  but  false  or  doubtful.  Our  cure 
should  be  solid,  and  not  threaten  a  speedy  re 
lapse  ;  it  should  be  internal,  the  work  of  grace, 
and  not  merely  external,  the  result  of  restraint 
or  of  the  removal  from  occasion  ;  it  should  be 
entire,  and  not  partial,  leaving  half  the  evil 
uncorrectcd. 

It  should  be  solid  ;  one  which  establishes  us 
in  a  state  of  constant  health,  and  fixes  the  eter 
nal  vicissitudes  of  our  heart ;  which  bears  lasting 
fruit;  which  applies  the  axe  to  the  root  of  th* 
bad  tree,  and  extirpates  the  evil,  without  spa 
ring  the  fatal  germ  which  would  instantly  shoot 
forth,  and  again  produce  the  fruits  of  death. 
For,  my  brethren,  these  alternations  of  sickness 
and  health,  these  wounds  which  open,  the  mo 
ment  after  they  are  closed,  these  prompt,  and 
ever  certain,  returns  to  guilt,  this  stream  of  pas 
sion  and  of  crime,  which  is  interrupted  only  by 
the  sacraments ;  this  monstrous  mixture  of  holy 


ON    COMMUNION.  163 

and  profane,  of  life  and  death,  of  rupture  and 
reconciliation,  of  sacraments  and  relapses,  of  re 
medies  constantly  applied  and  always  ineffectual; 
this  source  of  corruption  which  seems  to  swell 
its  current  by  the  very  waters  of  penance,  and 
to  overflow  its  banks  more  rapidly  after  the  sa 
crament  '.  in  a  word,  this  state  of  debility,  in 
which  every  interval  of  health  is  but  the  pre 
lude  to  a  new  attack !  great  God,  what  a  life  to 
approach  thy  venerable  mysteries!  can  any  state 
be  worse  or  more  unworthy  than  this?  You  re 
turn  without  delay  to  the  vomit :  alas  !  you  are 
then  of  the  number  of  those  unclean  animals, 
to  which  the  Lord  lias  forbidden*  us  to  give  his 
sacred  body  ;  you  fall,  incessantly,  after  having 
tasted  of  the  heavenly  gift ;  it  is  then  greatly  to 
be  feared  that  you  have  not  been  renewed  by 
penance;  you  look  behind,  after  having  put  your 
hand  to  the  plough,  you  are  not  then  fit  for  the 
kingdom  or  the  table  of  Jesus  Christ. 

It  is  not,  that  I  pretend,  my  brethren,  that 
every  relapse  after  the  sacrament,  should  induce 
us  to  consider  the  cure  to  have  been  false :  no ; 
for,  alas!  what  is  man?  a  leaf  which  is  driven 
about  by  the  wind  ;  a  reed  which  the  slightest 

*  Matthew,  c.  vii.  v,  6. 


164  ON    COMMUNION. 

blast  presses  to  the  earth  ;  a  feeble  traveller  in 
a  strange  land,  who  is  secure  neither  from  sur 
prise  nor  from  open  attack  ;  a  wretched  crea 
ture  who  bears  within  himself,  the  source  of  all 
his  evils  and  the  instrument  of  his  own  defeat; 
combats  from  without,  fears  from  within ;  fo 
reign  enemies  that  surround,  and  domestic  ene 
mies  that  betray,  him  ;  standing  alone  in  the 
midst  of  so  many  dangers,  every  thing  conspires 
to  corrupt  him,  and  his  very  self,  assists  in  the 
seduction.  Once  more  then  what  is  man  I  but 
a  continual  miracle  of  grace  whilst  he  remains 
firm  ;  but  a  child  of  Adam,  who  yields  to  the 
impulse,  and  follows  the  fatal  impressions,  of  his 
origin,  when  he  falls. 

Thus  the  flesh  of  Jesus  Christ  may  strengthen, 
animate  and  defend  us  ;  but  to  preserve  us  from 
all  relapse,  to  subject  all  our  enemies,  to  at 
tach  us  to  justice  and  truth  by  indissoluble  ties, 
is,  it  is  true,  the  privilege  of  this  heavenly  wine, 
but  only,  when  used  in  the  kingdom  of  the  Fa 
ther  ;  it  is  indeed,  the  benefit  to  be  derived  from 
this  bread  of  the  elect,  but  only,  when  it  will  be 
no  longer  a  hidden  manna,  but  when  we  shall  eat 
of  it  openly,  in  the  society  of  the  Lamb. 

We  do  not  then  require  that  the  Eucharist 
should  so  confirm  you  in  grace,  as  to  put  the 


ON    COMMUNION.  165 

last  eeal  to  your  salvation;  for  we  all  know, 
alas  !  that  the  life  of  man  is  a  continual  temp 
tation,  and  that  the  most  just,,  sometimes  fall  ; 
but  we  ought  to  expect,  that  after  having  re 
course  to  the  remedy,,  your  precaution  would  be 
increased,  your  disorders  diminished,  your  re 
lapses  less  frequent  and  less  sudden  :  we  ought 
to  expect,  as  Saint  Chrysostom  says,  that  going 
forth  from  this  divine  banquet,  like  lions  ren 
dered  the  more  fierce,  the  more  courageous,  the 
more  fearful  by  the  blood  on  which  they  feed, 
you  would  appear  more  terrible  to  Satan,  more 
courageous  to  resist,  more  intrepid  in  your  own 
defence,  more  difficult  to  be  overcome :  we  ought 
to  expect  that  after  your  bodies  have  been  mark 
ed  with  the  blood  of  the  Lamb,  the  impure  spi 
rit  would  respect,  and  not  dare  to  approach, 
them,  as  of  old,  the  exterminating  Angel  in 
Egypt,  did  not  dare  to  enter  the  doors  that  were 
stained  with  the  blood  of  the  figurative  lamb :  we 
ought  to  expect  that  the  divine  Eucharist  would 
repose  in  your  hearts,  not  merely  to  suspend  the 
course  of  your  passions  for  a  short  interval,  as 
the  ark  of  the  covenant  once  suspended  the 
stream  of  the  Jordan,*  whose  waters,  however, 

*  Joshua  c.  iii.  vv.  11.  16.    c.  iv.  v.  18. 


166  ON    COMMUNION. 

immediately  resumed  their  current,  when  the 
monument  of  the  glory  of  Israel,  had  passed  to 
the  other  side :  in  a  word,  we  ought  to  expect 
that  after  feeding  on  this  solid  food,  you  would 
be  as  strong  men,  and  no  longer  as  feeble  and 
vacillating  children,  who  are  caught  in  the  first 
«nare,  and  overthrown  by  the  first  assault.  The 
Evangelist  as  an  ancient  Father  remarks,  does 
not  reckon  the  women  or  children  amongst 
those,  whom  Christ,  this  day,  fed  with  the  mira 
culous  bread,  and  by  the  omission  he  wishes  to 
inform  us,  that  we  should  bring  to  this  substan 
tial  banquet,  not  the  weakness  of  children  nor 
the  inconstancy  of  the  sex,  but  the  vigor  and  the 
firmness  of  full-grown  men.  For,  truly  if  you 
find  yourself  the  same,  on  quitting  the  altar,  as 
weak  in  temptation,  as  bitter  towards  your  bre 
thren,  as  worldly  in  your  morals  and  inclina 
tions,  as  eager  for  distinction,  as  ambitious  of 
dignity,  as  passionate,  perhaps  as  dissolute  as 
before ;  is  it  not  a  sure  sign  that  you  have  pre 
sented  yourself  at  the  holy  table,  with  the  sting 
of  death  in  your  bosom,  with  the  shameful  ulcer 
of  sin,  still  unopened  in  your  soul  ?  In  eflect, 
the  cures  effected  by  grace,  are  not  those  cures 
which  last  only  for  a  day.  Grace  changes  the 
heart,  rectifies  the  inclinations,  creates  a  new 


ON    COMMUNION. 


16? 


man,  builds  the  house  on  the  solid  rock,  puts  the 
armed  strong  man  in  possession  of  our  soul; 
now  surely,  the  new  man  does  not  grow  old  on 
the  very  day  of  his  birth  ;  the  house  on  the 
rock  is  not  beaten  down  by  the  first  raging  of 
the  tempest  or  the  first  blast  of  the  storm  ;  the 
spirits  of  impurity  must  often  return  to  the 
charge,  before  they  overcome  and  despoil  the 
armed  strong  man  when  he  is  once  in  peaceable 
possession  of  the  court  of  our  soul :  in  a  word, 
and  let  us  say  it  more  correctly,  the  change  of 
heart  is  not  the  work  of  a  moment ;  as  grace  or 
dinarily  triumphs  in  the  soul,  by  slow  and  in 
sensible  advances,  so  also  it  is  true,  that  it  for 
sakes  it  only  by  little  and  little,  by  a  tardy  and 
imperceptible  abandonment:  your  relapses,  then 
demonstrate  that  you  were  not  cured,  or  that 
your  cure  was  not  solid,  when  you  presented 
yourself  to  partake  of  the  sacrament  of  the 
altar. 

But  a  cure,  in  ortler  to  be  solid,  must  be  in 
terior,  that  is  to  say,  it  must  not  owe  its  sta 
bility,  to  the  removal  from  occasions,  or  to  the 
constraint  and  security  of  an  asylum,  but  to  the 
renovation  of  the  will,  and  to  the  liberty  of  the 
children  of  God.  On  the  subject  of  conversion, 
it  is  a  dangerous  illusion  to  fancy  ourselves  pe- 


168  ON    COMMUNION. 

nitent,  whe  i  we  cease  to  be  sinners  :  to  per 
suade  ourselves  that  the  tree  is  good,  when  it 
no  longer  produces  the  fruit  of  death  ;'  that  the 
fire  is  extinct  as  soon  as  it  is  covered,  or  that 
passion  is  extirpated  when  it  no  longer  appears: 
there  is  however  a  wide  difference  between  the 
.cessation  from  evil  and  the  change  of  the  heart. 
The  law,  says  Saint  Augustine,  conducted  no 
thing  to  perfection  ;  it  prevented  transgression 
by  the  fear  of  punishment,  but  did  not  reach  to 
the  will  of  the  carnal  jew;  it  prescribed  and 
regulated  his  works,  but  left  his  heart  to  all  its 
irregularity  ;  he  was  not  a  prevaricator,  but  he 
was  not  therefore  just,  for  true  justice  does  not 
consist  merely  in  avoiding  evil  and  in  doing 
good,  but  in  hating  the  evil  which  we  shun, 
and  in  loving  the  good  which  we  embrace.  It 
may  then  happen  that  the  decency  of  our  cha 
racter,  tha'  human  fear,  a  variety  of  obstacles  or 
the  absence  of  occasion,  serve  as  a  bridle  to  the 
passions  and  suspend  the  commission  of  crime, 
although  the  heart  be  not  freed,  nor  the  wound 
of  sin  healed  in  the  soul.  Now  in  the  si<rht  of 

o 

God,  we  are  only  what  our  heart  makes  us : 
men  see  only  the  exterior  and  judge  from  appear 
ances,  but  God  sees  the  inmost  recesses  of  our 
conscience,  and  judges  from  that  which  is  in 
visible. 


ON    COMMUiNIQN.  169 

This  is  an  important  reflection  for  you,  my 
brethren,  whom  this  sacred  asylum  removes  from 
the  world,  and  shelters  from  the  occasions  of  sin. 
On  entering-  into  this  habitation  of  peace,  you 
have  renounced  the  works  of  darkness,  and  ex 
hibited  some  signs  and  performed  some  acts,  of 
repentance  ;  but  let  me  ask  you  whether  your 
conversion  is  to  be  ascribed  to  the  grief,  which 
you  felt  for  your  transgressions,  or  to  the  secu 
rity  of  the  place  in  which  you  live?  You  no 
longer  follow  the  criminal  desires  of  the  flesh, 
but  are  not  these  desires  still  concealed  in  the 
midst  of  your  heart  ?  Crime  in  the  holy  place, 
would  be  attended  with  too  much  pain,  and  is  it 
not  in  this  point  of  view,  that  you  regard  and 
avoid  it?  The  disclosures  which  you  would  be 
obliged  to  make  to  your  spiritual  director,  would 
be  full  of  bitterness,  and  is  it  not  this  bitterness 
alone,  that  makes  sin  disagreeable  to  you  ?  the 
way  of  duplicity  is  replete  with  danger,  and  is 
it  not  this  danger  alone,  that  preserves  you  from 
it?  Great  God  !  how  can  I  say,  whether  we 
should  bless  the  triumph  of  thy  grace,  and  con 
sole  ourselves  on  the  apparent  success  of  our 
ministry  !  Your  change,  my  brethren,  is  perhaps 
but  external  ;  perhaps  your  passions  being  no 
longer  surrounded  by  those  objects  which  served 


170  ON    COMMUNION. 

to  entice  them,  are  merely  slumbering:  they  are 
perhaps,,  enchanted  by  the  spectacle  of  religion 
which  you  have  before  your  eyes,,  by  the  devout 
exercises,  the  pious  canticles.,  the  edifying  in 
structions,,  the  splendor  and  variety  of  ceremo 
nies,  in  this  holy  place  :  but  these  constitute  but 
a  passing  charm,  which  is  easily  broken  :  in  this 
dwelling  of  repose,  in  the  tranquillity  of  retreat, 
they  may  sleep  like  the  asp,  which  has  heard  the 
voice  of  the  wise  enchanter ;    but  alas !  and  I 
say   it  with   grief,   scarcely,   perhaps,   will   you 
have  exposed  them  on  the  scenes  of  public  agi 
tation,  scarcely  will  they  have  heard  the  noise  of 
the  world,  when  you  will  perceive  them  to  re 
vive,  to  awake,  to   shake  off  their  drowsiness, 
and  become  the  more  ungovernable,  as  they  have 
been  strengthened  by  repose,  and   the  quiet  of 
long  inactivity.  Thus  whilst  Saul  heard  the  mu 
sic  of  David's  harp,  the  evil  spirit  ceased  to  tor 
ment  him,    but  scarce  had    the  divine   melody 
ceased,    when  as  though  the  enchantment  had 
been  dissolved,   he  returned   with   still   greater 
violence  to  all  the  former  excesses  of  his  fury 
and  his  rage. 

But  a  cure  cannot  be  interior,  if  it  be  not  en 
tire,  for  the  works  of  God  are  perfect.  Now 
we  often  imagine  that  to  be  cured,  it  is  sufficient 


ON    COMMUNION. 


171 


to  have  cut  away  what  was  blackest  in  our  pas 
sions,  without  fathoming  the  fatal  source,  or 
touching  the  corrupt  inclinations  from  which 
they  spring;  to  have  preserved  what  was  pleas 
ing  in  our  vices,  and  abandoned  only  what  was 
troublesome,  and  with  which  our  conscience 
could  not  be  at  ease :  how  many  cures  of  this 
description  ?  Yet  in  this  state,  our  passions  are 
not  extinguished ;  their  ardor  is  merely  checked 
and  moderated  by  our  self-love  ;  our  vices  are 
not  rooted  up,  but  merely  bent  to  a  point,  from 
which  there  is  still  a  long  distance  to  virtue. 
Voluptuousness  has  subsided  into  effeminacy,  a 
dissolute  life  into  one  of  ease  and  inutility,  scan 
dalous  transgression  into  vain  and  dangerous 
conversation,  libertinism  into  philosophic  sub 
mission  to  necessity,  the  forgetfulness  of  God, 
into  a  tepid  and  indifferent  piety.  We  are  only 
half  cured:  we  are  corrected,  but  not  converted; 
we  are  not  the  Fame,  but  yet  we  are  not  new 
men ;  v  e  are  no  longer  seated  in  the  darkness  of 
the  shadow  of  death,  but  our  eyes  are  yet  but 
opened  in  part,  and  we  see  only  half  the  truth : 
like  the  blind  man  whose  cure  is  mentioned  in 
the  gospel,  we  see,  yet,  but  imperfectly,  and 
mistake  one  object  for  another.* 

*And  they  came  to  Bethsaida  ;  and  they  bring  to 
him  one  blind,  and  they  besought  him,  that  he  would 


172  OX    COMMUNION. 

Now  these  remains  of  disease  are  more  dan 
gerous  than  the  disease  itself,  for  there  are  re 
medies  for  great  disorders,  but  scarcely  any,  for 
infirmity  of  this  description.  Besides,  if  you 
remain  in  your  present  state,  it  is  certain  that 
your  conversion,  has  been  but  the  mere  result  of 
your  own  self-love  :  you  have  unloaded  yourself 
of  a  burden  which  pressed  you  to  the  ground, 
of  a  talent  of  lead  as  the  Prophet*  calls  it,  that 
weighed  cruelly  on  your  conscience  :  you  have 
sought  relief  from  the  burden  of  your  crimes, 
but  you  have  not  sought  to  punish  them  :  you 
have  shaken  off  the  yoke  of  Satan  because  it  was 
oppressive,  but  you  have  had  no  intention  of 
taking  up  the  yoke  of  Christ  in  its  stead  :  you 
have  been  eager  to  empty  those  depths  of  defile 
ment,  those  stagnant  waters,  which  the  finger  of 
God  had  agitated  within  you,  and  which  began 
to  be  insupportable  to  you  by  their  very  corrup- 

touch  him.  And  taking*  the  hand  of  tlic  blind,  he 
led  him  forth  out  of  the  town  ;  and  spitting  upon 
his  eyes,  and  imposing  his  hands,  he  asked  him,  if 
he  saw  any  thing  ?  And  looking  up  he  said  :  1  see 
men,  as  it  were  trees,  walking.  After  that  again  he 
imposed  his  hands  upon  his  eyes,  and  he  began  to 
see,  and  was  restored  so  that  he  saw  all  things 
clearly. — Mark.  c.  viii.  verses  22.  23.  24.  25. 
*  Zac.  c.  v.  ver.  7. 


ON    COMMUNION.  173 

lion  ;  but  you  have  not  even  thought  of  for 
cing1  the  bitter  waters  of  penance  from  the  hard 
rock  of  your  heart.  Yet  the  conversion  of  the 
heart  is  a  mournful  and  a  painful  sacrifice,,  in 
which  the  victim  must  be  seasoned  with  the  salt 
of  affliction  and  purified  by  the  fire  of  austeri 
ties,  before  it  can  be  presented  at  the  altar. 
Sinners,  in  ancient  times,  did  not  reach  the 
sanctuary,  but  through  entire  years  of  humilia 
tion  and  suffering;  the  communion  was  not  the 
first  step,  but  the  prize  and  crown  of  their  pe 
nance  ;  and  the  Eucharistic  bread  was  for  them 
a  bread  of  sorrow  of  which  they  were  not  per 
mitted  to  eat,  but  in  the  sweat  of  their  brow. 
It  was  then  wisely  supposed,  that  a  Christian  who 
had  recently  quitted  the  paths  of  sin,  always 
carried  with  him  a  thousand  of  its  weaknesses, 
which  time  and  the  grace  of  repentance  alone., 
could  strengthen ;  that  the  Eucharist  being  the 
food  of  the  strong,  it  was  necessary,  before 
using  it,  that  he  should  have  grown  to  man's  es 
tate,  that  being  a  new  and  powerful  wine,  it  was 
not  prudent  to  pour  it  immediately  into  a  weak 
soul,  grown  old  and  worn,  as  it  were,  by  trans 
gression,  but  that  it  was  necessary  to  wait  till, 
like  the  eagle,  he  had  renewed  his  youth,  lest 
m>t  being  able  to  contain  the  precious  liquor, 


174  OS    COMMUNION. 

it  should  spiil  and  be  miserably  trampled  under 
foot.*  It  is  not  then  enough  to  be  healed  in 
appearance. 

I  have  dwelt  thus  long  on  this  disposition,, 
because  it  seemed  to  me  important:  the  cure 
must  be  solid,  interior,  and  entire,  nor  is  it  dif 
ficult  to  discern  whether  it  be  truly  so  or  not 
When  the  heart  is  cured  its  desires  and  its  in 
clinations  are  new  :  to  live  in  the  controul  of  all 
your  senses  ;  to  listen  with  docility  to  the  voico 
of  Christ  within  you;  to  place  your  delight  in 
prayer,  in  seclusion  and  in  the  meditation  of  his 
holy  law,  was  heretofore  to  you  an  unknown 
lan<nia«re :  it  must  henceforward  become  vour 

O  O  •f 

familiar  exercise ;  and  this  is  the  second  dispo 
sition  pointed  out  in  the  history  of  this  multi 
tude.  Not  only  does  Christ  heal  their  diseases, 
but  he  speaks  to  them,  instructs,  and  nourishes 
them,  with  miraculous  food.  For  the  divine 
"banquet  it  is  but  little  preparation,  to  be  exempt 
from  defilement,  we  must  be  also  adorned  with 
virtues. 

SECOND    DISPOSITIONS 

We  must  have  rendered  ourselves  familiar  with 
the  presence  and  the  communications  of  Jesus, 

*  Matthew,  c.  ix.  v.  17. 


ON    COMMUNION.  175 

before  presuming  on  that  greatest  familiarity  of 
seating  ourselves  at  his  table.  He  prepared  his 
disciples,  by  three  years  of  intercourse  and  of 
instruction,,  for  that  happy  evening  on  which  he 
gave  them  the  last  pledge  of  his  love,  in  feeding 
them  with  his  sacred  flesh  :  he  travelled  with  the 
two  disciples  to  Emmaus,  conversed  with  them 
on  the  way  and  explained  to  them  the  scriptures, 
before  blessing  and  distributing  to  them  the  sa 
cred  bread.  On  this  day,  he  speaks  long  to 
the  multitude,  he  unfolds  to  them  the  celestial 
truths  of  his  doctrine  and  entertains  them  on  the 
glory  and  the  mysteries  of  the  kingdom  of  God, 
before  multiplying  the  loaves  with  which  he 
feeds  them.  That  is  to  say,  my  brethren,  those 
only  who  have  been  accustomed  to  listen  to  the 
voice,  are  called  to  the  table,  of  the  Redeemer; 
those  only,  who  live  by  faith,  are  \vorthy  to  par 
take  of  this  sacrament.  The  holy  Fathers  say, 
that  Mary  would  never  have  conceived  the  Son 
of  God  in  her  womb,  if  she  had  not  first  con 
ceived  him  by  faith  in  her  heart.  Now  the  com 
munion  is  a  new  incarnation ;  and  therefore  the 
participation  of  the  Eucharist,  pre-supposes  the 
collectedness  of  the  senses,  a  close  familiarity 
with  Jesus,  the  love  and  the  meditation  of  hi* 
doctrine,  a  constant  fidelity  to  all  the  injuction* 


176  ON    COMMUNION. 

of  his   law,    and   to  all    the    inspirations    of  hi* 
grace. 

For,  in  truth,  my  brethren,  if  you  never  enter 
into  your  own  hearts,  to  listen  to  the  voice  of 
Jesus;  if  your  life  is  all  exterior,  all  in  the 
senses  ;  if  your  prayers  are  so  many  Wandering* 
of  the  mind ;  your  lectures,  either  dangeroui 
curiosity,  or  mere  amusement  ;  your  studies, 
either  dry  labor,  the  result  of  passion,  or  the 
pursuit  of  ambition  ;  your  ordinary  actions, 
either  trifles  or  pleasures ;  your  most  august 
functions,  degenerated  into  forms  which  no  long 
er  awaken  your  piety  ;  in  a  word,  if  you  do  not 
live  according  to  the  interior  man,  you  know 
not  Jesus,  for  his  abode  is  within  you,  his  king 
dom  is  in  the  heart,  and  that  is  precisely,  the 
place,  where  you  are  never  to  he  found.  He  is 
then  for  you  the  unknown  God  mentioned  hy 
Saint  Paul:*  you  have  never  spoken  with  him,  as 
a  friend  is  accustomed  to  speak  with  his  friend  ; 
neither  does  he  know  you,  at  least  with  a  know 
ledge  of  love  and  of  discernment ;  you  are  in  his 
regard,  as  though  you  were  not.  Now  I  ask 
you  whether  it  be  decorous  or  usual  for  a  per 
son  to  present  himself  at  table  where  he  is  not 

*Acts.  c.  xvii.  v.  23, 


ON    COMMUNION.  177 

known  ?  Is  not  this  the  privilege  of  long  fami 
liarity  ?  and  you  live  without  any  interior  or  in 
timate  relation  with  Jesus ;  you  are  a  stranger 
to  him,,  and  yet  you  presume  to  sit  down  at  his 
table?  But  are  you  ignorant  that  the  law  forbids 
the  stranger  to  eat  of  the  loaves  of  proposition  ? 
Aliegcria  non  vescetur  ex  eis  :*  do  you  not  know 
that  Christ  makes  the  pasche  with  his  disciples 
alone  :  Cum  discipulis  meis  facto  pascha  :  f  do 
you  not  know  that  this  is,,  as  it  were,  a  family 
banquet  to  which  none  are  invited  but  fi'iends 
and  neighbours  :  Convocat  amicos  et  vicinos  ?J 
A  life  then,  without  recollection,  and  without 
connexion  with  Jesus,  without  a  love  for  prayer 
or  unction  for  the  duties  of  piety,  without  vi 
gilance  over  ordinary  actions,  or  mortification 
in  any  thing  that  flatters  the  senses,  in  a  word, 
a  life  without  the  exercise  of  Christian  faith ; 
such  a  life,  let  us  suppose  it  even  exempt  from 
crime,  is  a  formal  unworthiness  which  excludes 
from  the  altar.  The  manna  of  the  Jews  was 
laid  in  the  ark,  between  the  rod  of  Aaron  and  the 
tables  of  the  law,  and  Christ  Jesus  the  manna 
of  Christians.,  cannot  repose  in  the  heart,  except 


*  Exodus,  c.  xxix.  v.  33.     f  Matthew,  c.  xxvi.  v.  18. 
I  Luke.  c.  xv.  v.  6. 

N 


178  ON    COMMUNION. 

between  the  mortification  of  the  senses,  signi 
fied  by  the  rod,  and  the  constant  meditation  of 
the  law  of  God,  signified  by  the  tables,  on 
which  it  was  written. 

THIRD    DISPOSITION. 

Another  proof  of  this  truth  is  found  in  the 
third  disposition.  This  outward  and  dissipated 
life,  however  innocent  you  may  suppose  it, 
blunts  the  appetite  for  this  divine  nutriment: 
for  as  the  soul,  in  this  state,  is  satisfied  in  the 
greater  part  of  her  desires,  she  enjoys  a  false 
abundance.  Now  the  heart  hungers,  only,  when 
it  feels  itself  empty  ;  if  you  fill  it  with  a  pe 
rishable  sustenance,  it  retains  neither  taste  nor 
desire  for  the  bread  of  heaven,  and  this  state  of 
disgust  and  satiety  is  more  to  be  feared  by  those 
who  still  keep  within  certain  limits  in  trans 
gression,  than  by  declared  sinners.  For  cri 
minal  pleasures  have  this  peculiarity,  that  in 
filling,  they  trouble  and  tear,  the  soul,  and  make 
it  feel  its  wretchedness  and  destitution ;  and  of 
the  bite  of  crime,  we  may  say  as  of  the  bite  of 
the  scorpion,  that  it  carries  with  it  its  own  re 
medy.  But  the  pleasures  which  are  called  inno 
cent,  those  indulgences  which  do  not  go  entirely 
so  far  as  guilt,  those  infidelities  which  approach, 


ON    COMMUNION. 


179 


without  passing,  the  bounds  of  sin  ;  ah  !  they  fill 
th,e  heart  without  disturbing  it;  they  bring  with 
them  a  false  abundance  and  felicity  :  what  do  I 
say  ?  they  satisfy  cupidity  because  they  are  agree 
able,  and  even  tranquillize  faith  by  the  appear 
ance  of  innocence.  They  resemble  the  idols 
erected  by  Jeroboam,*  which  amused  the  piety 
of  the  people  by  the  imitation  of  the  worship  of 
Jerusalem,,  and  at  the  same  time,  gratified  his 
passion  for  idolatry,  by  the  likenesses  of  two 
golden  calves,  and  by  the  impious  extravagance 
of  the  offerings  and  sacrifices. 

Now  to  feed  worthily  on  this  bread  of  heaven, 
we  must  hunger  for  it ;  and  this^  according  to 
Saint  Augustine,  is  the  third  disposition.  Re 
mark  also,  that  the  Redeemer  does  not  multiply 
the  loaves  immediately,  on  the  arrival  of  the 
multitude  in  the  desert :  he  waits  till  the  day  is 
far  spent  and  the  hour  of  repast  gone  by :  Et 
hora  jam  pertransiit :  he  waits  till  the  people  are 
overcome  by  hunger,  and  it  is  then,,  says  the 
same  Saint,  that  his  mercy  finds  the  favourable 
moment,  to  afford  them  sustenance :  Esurienles 
agnovit,  misericorditer  pavit.  For,  my  brethren, 
to  approach  to  the  altar  with  a  tepid  and  blunted 

*  3  KiDgs,  c.  xii.  vv.  27.  28.  29. 


180  ON    COMMUNION. 

heart,  to  bring  to  it  a  satiety  that  leaves  you 
no  longer  any  keenness  of  desire,  in  a  word, 
to  eat  in  disgust ;  ah !  this  would  be  to  take  food 
indeed,  but  food  from  which  you  could  derive 
no  advantage.  The  flesh  of  Jesus  Christ  has 
this  peculiarity,  that  it  nourishes,  in  as  much 
only,  as  it  delights  those  who  partake  of  it,  and 
that  the  benefits  which  we  draw  from  it,  are  pro 
portioned  to  the  hunger  and  the  love  with  which 
we  approach  it. 

But  what  is  it,  to  hunger  for  the  flesh  and 
blood  of  Jesus  Christ?  It  is,  in  the  first  place, 
to  banish  from  us  whatever  might  estrange  our 

o  o 

affections  from  the  sacrament  of  love ;  to  refrain, 
as  Saint  Paul  exhorts,  from  the  very  appearance 
of  evil,*  that  we  may  contract  no  defilement  that 
would  interdict  us  from  the  use  of  this  pure 
azyme ;  to  avoid  with  religious  care,  the  inter 
course  of  the  uncircumcised,  nor  scarce  dare  to 
enter  the  places  of  their  abode,  lest  their  society 
defile,  and  render  us  unfit  to  eat  of  the  passover ; 
to  profit  of  the  desire  of  approaching  the  Eucha 
rist,  to  live  with  circumspection,  to  render  our 
most  ordinary  actions  a  preparation  for  the  altar, 
nor  allow  ourselves  any  indulgence  but  such  as 

*l.Thes.  c.  v.  T.  22. 


ON    COMMUNION.  181 

is  compatible  with  the  use  of  this  adorable  sa 
crament  :  to  us  particularly  who  celebrate,  every 
day,  the  tremendous  mysteries,  this  practice  is 
altogether  indispensable.  For,  a  Priest  who  lives 
without  recollection,  offers  up  the  flesh  of  Jesus 
Christ  without  fervor,  and  eats  of  it,  without 
relish  or  desire,  for  the  relish  of  the  soul  is  the 
fervor  of  love  :  now  if  you  eat  of  it  without 
desire,  you  partake  of  it  without  benefit;  you 
want  that  divine  heat  requisite  to  digest  this  holy 
food,  and  which  by  changing-  it  into  your  own 
substance,  would  enable  you  to  grow  by  the  ure 
of  it :  you  resemble  those  patients  who  have  not 
a  sufficiency  of  natural  heat  to  digest  what  they 
eat,  and  to  whom,  in  consequence,  nutriment  is 
not  only  useless,  but  injurious  ;  for  whatever 
goes  not  to  nourish,  is  turned  into  corruption, 
and  the  more  solid  and  exquisite  the  food,  the 
more  is  corruption  to  be  feared.  Now  you  conti 
nually  eat  of  the  divine  feast,  and  yet  you  neither 
grow  nor  improve  :  I  tremble  for  you  :  the  man 
na  collected  contrary  to  the  ordinance  of  the 
law,  was  changed  into  worms  and  rottenness  ;* 
and  who  can  say,  whether,  whilst  you  heap  sa 
crament  upon  sacrament  without  profit,  you  are 

*  Exodus,  c.  xvi.  v.  20. 


182  ON    COMMUNION. 

not  amassirg  a  treasure  of  stench  and  infection  ! 
perhaps  the  flesh  of  Jesus,  that  germ  of  incor- 
ruption  and  immortality,  is  within  you  a  fatal 
leaven  which  corrupts  the  whole  mass;  and  when 
I  say,  perhaps,  I  soften  down  the  severity  of  a 
truth  which  the  Saints  have  taught  without  re 
striction  or  abatement. 

In  the  second  place,  to  hunger  for  the  flesh 
of  Jesus,  is  to  find  every  thing  insipid,  except 
this  celestial  nutriment;  to  refuse  like  the  mul 
titude,  to  go  into  the  neighbouring  towns  and 
villages,  to  satisfy  their  hunger,  by  food  differ 
ent  from  the  miraculous  bread  that  awaited  them  ; 
to  find  a  thousand  times  more  sweets,  in  the 
table  of  the  Lord,  than  in  the  honey  of  the 
tents  of  sinners ;  to  desire  it  with  ardor,  to  expect 
it  with  impatience,  and  to  esteem  no  day  of 
our  lives  so  happy  as  that  on  which  we  are 
permitted  to  approach  it ;  to  find  in  it  the  con 
solation  of  our  exile,  the  solace  of  our  pains, 
peace  in  our  troubles,  strength  in  temptations, 
and  light  in  our  perplexities ;  to  fall,  like  the 
Prophet*  into  dryness  and  dejection,  from  the 
moment  in  which  we  forget  to  eat  of  this  deli 
cious  and  invigorating  bread;  in  a  word,  to  be 

*  3  Kings,  c.  xix.  v.  4. 


ON    COMMUNION,  183 

the  first  to  run  to  this  princely  feast,  nor  wait 
till  we  are  pressed  from  the  public  places,  and 
compelled  by  force  to  enter  and  partake  of  the 
banquet.  * 

In  the  third  place,  to  hunger  for  the  flesh  of 
Jesus,  is  to  present  ourselves  at  his  altar,  with 
a  sincere  heart,  a  simple  conscience,  an  un 
feigned  faith,  and  to  banish  far  from  so  sacred 
an  action,  every  motive  that  is  foreign  to  its 
holiness  and  unworthy  of  its  dignity.  For,  it 
is  but  too  true  that  propriety,  example,  and 
sometimes  even  duplicity,  attract  guilty  adorers 
to  this  sacred  festival ;  and  that  many,  like  the 
scribe  mentioned  in  the  gospel,  f  present  them 
selves  to  the  Redeemer,  with  holes  in  their 
hearts  for  the  foxes,  and  nests  for  the  fowls  of 
the  air;  that  is  to  say,  with  motives  of  interest 
or  of  human  prudence,  with  views  of  pride  or  of 
vain  reputation ;  in  which  however,  the  Son  of 
Man  cannot  find  whereon  to  recline  his  head. 

I  say  propriety.  Suppose  you  are  in  a  pious 
community  :  you  wish  to  live  in  it  with  credit 
and  honor,  nor  are  you  of  a  character,  nor  as 
yet  of  an  age,  to  throw  off  the  yoke  and  live  in 

*  Luke.  c.  xiv.  v.  16.  &c. 
fMattliew.  c.  viii.  vv.  19.  20.  Luke.  c.  ix.  vv.  57.  58. 


184  ON    COMMUNION. 

open  violation  of  discipline ;  you  wish  to  comply 
with  your  obligations,,  from  a  principle  of  reason 
and  even  of  glory,,  and  therefore  on  solemn  and 
stated  occasions  you  regularly  approach  the  holy 
mysteries  :  whenever  duty  seems  to  invite  to 
communion,  reflection  makes  it  a  law.  Often 
times  the  heart  refuses,  but  propriety  prevails : 
often  would  we  wish  to  stay  away  from  the  sa 
crament,  and  yet  we  partake  of  it  against  our 
conscience,  that  we  may  not  scandalize  our 
brethren.  But  Jesus  calls  to  this  banquet,  those 
only  who  are  sensible  of  their  weakness,  and 
have  need  of  being  relieved  from  their  burdens : 
this  is  the  table  of  his  children,  and  you  present 
yourself  at  it  like  a  slave;  it  is  a  kindness  that 
should  touch  your  heart,  and  you  regard  it  as  a 
painful  servitude  ;  it  is  a  feast  of  tenderness  and 
of  familiarity,  and  you  make  it  a  duty  of  mere 
propriety,  a  matter  of  pure  ceremony.  O  what 
a  crime!  thus  to  turn  the  altar  into  an  empty 
exhibition,  and  consult  for  human  appearances 
at  the  expense  of  Jesus  Christ. 

I  say  example.  We  do,  what  we  see  others 
do ;  it  is  not  Jesus  that  we  seek,  but  it  is  the 
multitude  that  we  follow  :  it  is  not  piety  nor  the 
hope  of  the  divine  promises  that  conducts  us  to 
the  altar,  but  mere  imitation.  We  resemble  the 


ON   COMMUNION.  185 

Cl»?tes,  a  singular  nation,  who  mingled  with 
the  Israelites  in  the  desert,*  and  journeyed  with 
them  towards  the  land  of  Promise,,  ignorant  of 
the  dispensation  which  conducted  the  people  of 
God;  and  thoughtless  of  the  milk  and  honey  of 
that  happy  country  which  was  destined  to  bcr 
come  their  possession  :  they  embraced  the  for 
tunes,  and  observed  the  changes,  of  the  camp, 
and  without  being  animated  by  the  same  hopes, 
or  inflamed  by  the  same  desires,  they  failed  not 
to  obey  the  signals,  and  follow  the  movements  of 
the  host  of  Israel. 

I  say  duplicity,  and  I  wish,  I  could  dispense 
with  this  part  of  the  subject.  We  receive  Jesus 
Christ  that  we  may  be  esteemed  by  men  ;  we 
make  the  bread  of  truth  subservient  to  our  im 
posture,  and  take  the  searcher  of  hearts  as  the 
confidant  of  our  execrable  hypocrisy:  the  ado 
rable  veil  of  the  sacrament  becomes  the  veil  of 
passion  and  of  crime ;  and  the  Lamb  without 
spot,  serves  only  to  seal  the  volume  of  death  and 
the  history  of  a  guilty  life,  from  the  eyes  of 
men.  But,  great  God!  is  there  to  be  found 
within  the  circuit  of  thy  own  house,  in  this 
abode  of  peace  and  religion,  in  the  midst  of 

*  Numbers,  c.  x.  v.  29.  Judges,  c.  i.  v.  16. 


186  ON   COMMUNION. 

(by  chosen  and  consecrated  people,  is  there  to 
be  found  a  wretch  so  profane  and  so  sacrilegious? 
dost  thou  discover  here  among  thy  own  minis 
ters,,  any  of  those  hlack  monsters,,  who  with  sin 
in  their  hearts,,  approach,  unmoved,  to  eat  and 
drink  their  own  condemnation  ;  those  monsters 
who  cast  thy  divine  flesh  into  the  depths  of  cor 
ruption,,  and  mingle  thy  sacred  hlood  with  the 
fornications  of  Babylon?  dost  thou  behold  in 
this  assembly,  any  of  those  demons  who  trans 
form  themselves  into  Angels  of  light,  and  who 
by  a  new  and  unheard  of  prodigy,  force  thee  to 
enter  into  the  unclean  animals?*  art  thou,  as 
thy  Prophet  complains,  defiled  in  the  midst  of 
thy  own  inheritance  ?  .\h  !  thou  knovvest  the 
hearts  of  all :  stamp  then  on  the  forehead  of  thi& 
impious  wretch,  as  thou  didst  formerly  on  Cain, 
a  visible  mark  of  thy  malediction,  since  like 
him  he  has  shed  innocent  blood,  and  rendered 
himself  guilty  of  the  death  of  the  just :  judge 
and  take  away  this  anathema  from  amongst  us, 
lest  he  draw  down  thy  wrath  on  all  his  brethren : 
cause  the  loathsome  leprosy  that  covers  his  soul, 
to  appear  on  his  flesh,  that  he  may  be  driven 
from  the  camp,  and  not  suffered  to  remain,  to 

*  Matthew,  c.  viii.  Mark.  c.   v.  Luke.  c.  viii. 


ON    COMMUNION. 


1ST 


infect  thy  people  :  or  rather,  O  Lord,  convert, 
and  heal  him,  in  secret;  cause  a  ray  of  thy 
grace  to  sh'ne  in  his  criminal  soul,  and  create 
within  him  a  new  heart :  this  wish  is  better  suit 
ed  to  our  ministry,  and  more  worthy  of  thy  in 
finite  mercy. 

For  our  part,  my  brethren,  let  us  without 
fluttering  ourselves,  examine  what  motive  it  is 
that  conducts  us  to  the  sacred  table :  it  is  here, 
that  the  choicest  gifts  of  heaven  are  bestowed, 
and  it  is  therefore,  here  in  particular,  that  the 
Lord  is  a  jealous  God,  and  can  endure  neither 
rivalry  nor  alloy  in  our  hearts.  Let  us  imagine 
when  we  approach  the  altar,  that  we  hear  a 
voice  from  the  bottom  of  the  sanctuary  uttering 
the  terrific  interrogation  :  Amice  ad  quid  vcnistil* 
O  man !  thou  who  wearest  the  countenance  of 
a  friend,  what  is  thy  design  in  coming  to  my 
table  ?  comest  thou  to  adore,  or  to  betray  me  : 
to  open  to  me  thy  heart,  or  to  pierce  my  bosom 
anew,  and  put  me  to  a  cruel  death  ?  comest  thou 
to  drink  of  the  wine  that  brings  forth  virgins, 
or  to  drench  me  again  with  gall  and  bitterness  ? 
Ad  quid  venisli?  comest  thou  to  me,  as  to  thy 
light  to  dissipate  the  -errors  of  thy  senses  ;  as  to 

Matthew,  c.  xxvi.  v.  50. 


168 


ON    COMMUNION, 


the  fountain  of  life,  to  extinguish  or  to  moderate 
the  ardor  of  thy  passions ;  as  to  the  truth,  to 
correct  the  deviations  of  thy  heart ;  as  to  the 
way,  that  thou  mayest  go  no  longer  astray  in 
thy  journeys ;  as  to  the  life,  to  repair  thy  pow 
ers  and  reanimate  thy  languors  ?  Ad  quid  venis- 
ti?  Ah !  my  brethren,  happy  we,  if  we  can  then 
reply  with  the  Royal  Prophet :  cc  all  my  desire 
is  before  thee,  O  Lord,  and  my  groaning  is  not 
hidden  from  thee :  *  prove  my  heart,  search  my 
reins,  and  see  if  there  is  to  be  found  in  then* 
even  a  trace  of  disguise  or  infidelity/' 

FOURTH    DISPOSITION. 

But  you  will  ask  me,  how  are  we  to  excite  i« 
ourselves,  the  desire  and  relish  of  the  Eucha 
rist?  By  the  frequent  use  of  this  sacrament; 
and  this  is  what  is  pointed  out  to  us  in  the  last 
disposition.  The  perishable  meat  of  this  world 
satisfies  the  body  but  oppresses  the  soul,  and 
abstinence  from  it,  is  necessary  to  create  and 
season  our  appetite.  But  the  meat  from  above, 
whicli  lasts  for  ever,  awakens  desire,  and  stimu 
lates  the  taste  ;  one  communion  produces  a  cra 
ving  for  a  second :  this  is  a  hidden  manna,  whose 

Psalm,  37.  v.  10. 


ON    COMMUNION.  189 

sweetness  and  strength  cannot  be  estimated  by 
a  single  trial,  and  to  communicate  with  profit, 
we  must  communicate  often.  Christ  commands 
the  multitude  to  be  seated  on  the  grass,  before 
they  eat  of  the  miraculous  bread :  Jussit  illvs  re- 
cumbere  super  fuenum:  and  by  this  step,  he 
wishes  to  instruct  us,  that  the  honor  of  being 
admitted  to  this  heavenly  table,  should  open  our 
eyes  to  our  infirmities,  to  our  miseries  and  our 
wants,  and  animate  us  to  have  frequent  recourse 
to  the  remedy  of  all  our  evils. 

And  here  there  are  two  rocks  to  be  avoided: 
some,  under  pretext  of  their  unworthiness  keep 
at  a  distance  from  the  altar ;  they  are  seated  on 
the  grass;  like  the  Prophet,  they  see  their  mi 
sery  and  destitution,  but  they  neither  eat  of  this 
divine  food,  nor  rely  sufficiently  upon  its  effi 
cacy  :  others  eat,  without  being  seated  on  the 
grass  ;  they  lose  sight  of  their  weakness  and 
fragility :  and  approach  with  presumptuous  con 
fidence  to  partake  of  the  heavenly  banquet. 
Two  things  there  are,  which  you  must  never 
separate,  a  firm  reliance  on  the  virtue  of  lh« 
-sacrament,  and  a  deep  sense  of  your  own  un 
worthiness;  otherwise  you  will  fall  cither  into 
a  respect  which  is  a  mere  illusion,  or,  into  the 
no  less  dangerous  error  of  a  rash  familiarity. 


190  ON    COMMUNION. 

A  respect  of  mere  illusion,  is  the  state  of  those 
amongst  you,  who  are  still  governed  by  their 
passions,  who  attempt  no  victory  over  them 
selves,  and  who  yet  flatter  themselves  that  their 
most  voluntary  transgressions,  are  a  just  excuse 
for  not  approaching  the  altar:  it  is  the  state  of 
those  who  mistake  their  base  cowardice  for  a 
sentiment  of  religion,  and  who  persuade  them 
selves  that  the  preference  which  they  make  of 
their  passions  and  habits,  to  the  table  of  Jesus 
Christ,  is  that  discernment  of  faith,  that  neces 
sary  proof  of  themselves,  commanded  by  the 
Apostle.* 

Your  life,  you  say,  is  not  sufficiently  holy, 
to  approach  often  to  the  sacrament  :  but  allow 
me  to  ask  you,  who  is  accountable  for  its  un- 
worthiness  ?  Live  in  such  a  manner  as  to  be 
worthy  to  present  yourself  every  day,  at  the  ta 
ble  of  the  Lord.  I  admit  that  it  is  better  to  ab 
stain,  than  to  eat  unworthily  :  but  do  you  take 
any  measures,  do  you  make  any  exertions  to 
render  yourself  worthy?  you  feel  so  little  devo 
tion,  that  you  dare  not  approach  :  senseless  man  ! 
because  you  are  sick  you  will  avoid  the  remedy  ? 
when  you  do  this  action  rarely,  you  perform  it 

*  1.  Cor.  c.  xi. 


ON    COMMUNION. 


191 


with  more  faith:  but  do  you  perform  it  with 
oreater  fruit  ?  you  fear  to  eat  unworthily :  but 
do  you  fear  what  renders  you  unworthy  ?  Be 
sides,  your  life  you  say  is  not  sufficiently  holy, 
and  yet  you  think  it  holy  enough  to  warrant  you 
to  aspire  to  a  formidable  ministry,  in  which  the 
sacred  mysteries  are  to  become  not  only  the  dai 
ly  food  of  your  soul,  but  the  fruit  of  your  tongue 
and  the  work  of  your  hands?  It  is  better  to  ab 
stain  than  to  approach  unworthily:  alas!  but  why 
do  you  not  apply  this  rule  to  your  rash  eagerness 
for  the  dignities  of  the  church?  You  feel  so  lit 
tle  devotion  :  but  you  ought  to  be  a  burning 
and  shining  lamp;  another  bush  flaming  with 
celestial  fire,  heating,  scorching  and  consuming 
whatever  is  around  you ;  and  if  you  remain  cold, 
how  will  you  infuse  the  love  of  Jesus  into  .the 
hearts  of  the  faithful,  and  kindle  into  a  blaze 
that  sacred  fire  which  he  came  to  scatter  on  the 
earth?  When  you  perform  this  action  rarely,  you 
perform  it  with  greater  faith:  but  alas!  if  your 
faith  becomes  extinct  by  a  familiarity  with  holy 
things,  you  should  look  upon  the  priesthood  to 
which  you  aspire,  as  a  frightful  precipice :  liv 
ing  in  it,  continually  in  the  midst  of  whatever 
is  most  terrible  in  religion,  you  will  pass  from 
disrelish  to  tepidity ;  from  tepidity  to  insensibi- 


192  dN    COMMUNION. 

lity  ;  from  insensibility  to  contempt ;  from  con 
tempt,  who  can  say?  perhaps,  to  impiety  and 
profanation.  If  then  you  arc  not  worthy  to 
partake  often  of  the  sacrament  of  the  altar,,  you 
are  not  worthy  to  aspire  to  the  sacred  functions 
of  the  altar.  If  your  tongue  is  not  sufficiently 
pure  to  receive  Jesus,  can  it  be  sufficiently  pure 
to  pronounce  the  words  by  which  he  is  pro 
duced.'  If  you  dare  not  use  the  privilege  of  a 
simple  Christian,  how  can  you  dare  to  pretend 
tt>  the  privileges  of  the  ministers  of  God?  The 
same  motives  then,  which  remove  you  from  the 
sacred  table,  should  much  more  forcibly  remove 
you  from  the  ministry  of  the  altar.  Whence 
then  comes  it,  that  there  is  so  much  fear  on  the 
one  side,  and  so  much  security  on  the  other  ? 
it  is  because  you  do  not  shun  what  is  beyond 
your  desert,  but  what  constrains  you ;  you  pro 
secute  not  what  is  holy,  but  what  is  elevated;  it 
is  because  iniquity  contradicts  itself.  I  intend 
ed  merely  to  encourage  your  timidity  and  raise 
your  dejection,  and  I  have  found  it  necessary 
to  combat  your  presumption. 

The  second  rock  is  not  less  to  be  feared  than 
the  first.  We  are  so  far  swayed  by  presump 
tuous  confidence,  that  we  confine  all  our  piety 
to  a  frequent  participation  of  the  sacrament :  to 


ON    (COMMUNION.  193 

vigilance,  fervor,  mortification  and  the  renounce 
ment  of  ourselves,  we  substitute  a  disorderly  de 
votion,  whose  only  effect  is  to  bring  us  often 
to  the  altar,  and  thus,  make  the  whole  exercise 
of  Christian  faith  to  consist  in  the  frequent  ap 
proach  to  the  table  of  the  Lamb  :  a  gross  illu 
sion  !  for  this  is  to  mistake  the  church  of  earth 
for  that  of  heaven.  The  citizens  of  the  celes 
tial  Jerusalem,  during  the  long  day  of  eternity,, 
will  feast  on  this  bread  of  the  elect,  and  drink 
of  the  inebriating  torrent  of  this  new  and  deli 
cious  wine ;  to  them  the  Lamb  will  give  himself, 
as  the  glorious  reward  of  their  victory  :  Vincenti 
dabo  cdere  de  ligno  vitce;*  but  to  us  he  commu 
nicates  himself  only  as  our  strength  and  support, 
our  buckler  and  our  sword.  The  frequent  use, 
then,  of  the  sacrament,  should  animate  you  with 
zeal  in  the  cause,  and  fill  you  with  ardor  for  the 
combat,  instead  of  casting  you  into  a  lethargic 
repose,  and  rendering  you  insensible  to  your 
weaknesses  and  your  dangers :  you  would  other 
wise  resemble  the  fool,  who  in  the  midst  of  his 
enemies,  would  be  content  to  collect  arms  around 
him,  and  slumber  in  security,  without  having 
bravely  employed  them  in  his  defence.  We  must 

*  Apocalypse,  c.  ii.  v.  7. 
0 


194  ON    COMMUNION. 

then  eat,  seated  on  the  grass;  we  must  never 
lose  sight  of  our  frailty,  nor  of  the  necessity 
of  vigilance :  we  must  never  forget  that  the 
strength  which  we  derive  from  the  sacrament, 
is  like  the  grass  of  the  field,  which  is  withered 
by  the  heat  of  the  sun  and  dies  in  the  drought 
of  a  single  day  ;  to-day  it  blooms,  and  to-mor 
row,  says  Jesus,  it  is  cast  into  the  furnace  ;* 
thus  the  sight  of  our  weakness,  will  induce  us 
to  have  frequent  recourse  to  the  sacrament,  and 
forbid  us  to  rely  too  presumptuously  on  its  effi 
cacy7.  We  will  thus  eat,  seated  on  the  grass, 
with  a  deep  impression  of  our  own  weakness 
and  insecurity  ;  and  this  is  the  more  necessary, 
as  at  our  departure  from  the  altar,  bearing  a 
precious  treasure  in  frail  vessels,  a  thousand 
enemies  eager  for  so  rich  a  prey,  lie  in  wait, 
to  carry  oft"  Jesus  from  our  hearts,  nor  can  we 
preserve  him  but  by  watchfulness  and  courage. 
Let  us  never  forget  the  fate  of  those  degenerate 
Jews,f  who  after  receiving  the  ark  into  the  camp, 
spent  their  time  in  shouting  for  joy  as  though 
they  had,  no  longer,  any  thing  to  fear  from  the 
Philistines  ;  and  gave  themselves  up  to  a  foolish 


*  Matthew,  c.  vi.  v.  30.       Luke.  c.  xii.  v.  28. 
t  1  Kings,  c.  iv. 


ON    COMMUNION.  195 

confidence  in  the  protection  of  this  symbol  of 
their  religion,  instead  of  taking  still  more  vigo 
rous  measures  than  before,  to  prevent  the  cap 
ture  of  the  ark  from  adding  to  the  disgrace  of 
Israel's  defeat,  and  swelling  the  pride  and  tri 
umph  of  the  enemy.  You  know  the  rest:  they 
were  vanquished,  and  the  ark  of  the  Lord  be 
came  the  prey  of  the  Philistines.  This  lesson 
is  truly  terrific,,  and  easily  applies  to  those,  who 
relying  too  presumptuously  on  the  Eucharist, 
leave  ;to  it,  as  it  were,  all  the  care  of  victory, 
and  abandoning  themselves  to  a  criminal  repose, 
cause  the  sacrament,  by  their  speedy  defeat,  to 
become  in  their  heart,  the  easy  prize  of  Satan. 

Let  us  then,  never  approach  the  holy  table, 
without  being  solidly,  interiorly,  and  entirely 
healed  from  our  wounds ;  .without  being  prepared 
for  it,  by  the  controul  of  our  senses,  and  by  the 
practice  of  prayer,  and  of  every  Christian  virtue; 
without  hungering  for  this  divine  food,  and  with 
out  a  lively  sentiment  of  our  necessities  and  of 
the  fragility  of  ourihearts  :  this  sentiment  will 
make  us  recur  often  to  the  sacrament  lest  watchr 
fulness  alone  should  not  suffice  to  sustain  us, 
and  will  make  us  unite  vigilance  to  the  sacra 
ment,  lest  the  remedy  alone,  without  wise  pre 
cautions,  should  prove  unsuccessful. 


196  ON    COMMLMON. 

If  we  bring  with  us,  those  dispositions  to  the 
altar,  \ve  may  hope  to  gather  from  it,  those 
fruits,  pointed  out  in  the  history  of  the  multi 
tude,  but  which,  time  does  not  allow  me,  now,  to 
develope.  We  shall  depart  satisfied  :  Manduca* 
verunt  omnes,  et  saturati  sunt  ;*  disgusted  with 
perishable  goods,  and  the  pleasures  of  sense, 
and  more  hungry  than  ever  for  the  banquet  of 
Jesus.  We  will  carefully  preserve  the  remains 
of  the  feast  that  they  may  not  perish ;  that  is 
to  say,  we  shall  receive  such  an  abundance  of 
grace,  that  after  relieving  our  own  necessities, 
we  shall  be  able,  out  of  what  remains,  to  form  a 
treasure  of  justice,  from  which  we  may,  one 
day,  draw  spiritual  riches  to  relieve  and  console 
those,  whom  providence  shall  confide  to  our  care. 
In  a  word,  we  will  no  longer  recognise  any 
other  king  than  Jesus  ;  we  will  establish  his 
reign  for  ever  in  our  hearts,  and  together  with 
him,  we  ourselves  shall  reign  over  our  passions 
and  our  vices  :  he  shall  be  as  a  king  of  peace  in 
full  possession  of  our  soul ;  as  a  king  of  libe 
rality,  and  of  glory,  he  will  cover  it  with  his 
favors,  and  adorn  it  with  glory  and  beauty  ;  nor, 
as  long  as  it  continues  faithful,  shall  any  be 

*Mark.  c.  yi.  r.  42. 


ON    COMMUNION.  197 

found,  powerful  enough,  to  force  it  from  his 
hands ;  so  that  we  may  then  say,  to  him,  even 
in  the  very  moment  in  which  he  communicates 
himself  to  us,  under  the  sacramental  veil,  as  he 
himself  said  to  his  Father:  Mea  omnia  tua  sunt, 
et  tua  mea  sunt*  Yes,  O  Lord,  whatever  I 
possess,  is,  from  this  day,  thine ;  reign  as  sove 
reign  in  my  heart:  I  shall  no  longer  contest 
with  thee,  its  possession  :  it  was  created  for  thee 
alone,  and  to  thee  I  owe  it  by  every  principle 
of  justice,  by  every  motive  of  gratitude  and 
love.  And  although  it  were  not  thy  right,  yet 
ought  I  not  to  esteem  myself  too  happy,  in  hav 
ing  any  thing  of  my  own  to  offer  to  thee  ?  to 
thee  who  art  the  most  splendid  and  generous  of 
masters,  who  will  not  suffer  thyself  to  be  van 
quished  in  bounty,  and  who  repayest  every  gift, 
with  favors  a  hundred-fold  :  my  inclinations,  my 
desires,  my  views,  my  talents,  my  strength,  my 
very  weaknesses,  all  are,  henceforth,  thine;  I 
will  from  this  hour  use  them  as  borrowed  goods, 
of  which  I  must  render  an  account  to  thee. 
But  thou  also  givest  thyself  entire,  to  me,  in 
the  sacrament :  thy  mysteries,  thy  doctrine,  thy 
gifts,  thy  promises,  thy  goods,  all  that  thou  art 

*  John.  c.  xvii.  v.  10. 


198  ON   COMMUNION. 

is  mine,  in  the  moment,  in  which  thou  feedest 
me  with  thy  sacred  flesh:  Et  tua,  mea  sunt. 
Happy  shall  I  be,  if  I  never  retract  the  offering 
which  I  now  make  thee,  and  still  more  happy, 
if  I  preserve,  with  exact  fidelity,  the  precious 
gift  which  I  this  day  receive  from  thee.  A  men. 


A  DISCOURSE 


ON 


THE  ZEAL  OF  THE  PASTORS  OF  THE 
CHURCH  AGAINST  SCANDALS. 


Et  cum  fecisset,  quasi  flagellum  de  funiculis,  cranes 
ejecit  de  Templo. 

And  when  he  had  made  as  it  were  a  scourge  of  little 
cords,  he  drove  them  all  out  of  the  Temple. 

JOHN.  chap.  ii.  ver.  15. 


THE  first  exercise  of  the  ministry  of  Christ  in 
Jerusalem,  is  an  act  of  zeal  against  the  abuses, 
which  dishonoured  the  glory  of  his  Father,  and 
the  sanctity  of  his  temple.  That  divine  meek 
ness,  which  had  hitherto  appeared  in  all  his  ac 
tions,  is,  this  day,  converted  into  a  holy  seve 
rity  :  he  cannot  endure  a  public  scandal,  which 
seems  to  insult  the  majesty  of  religion,  even  in 
its  most  sacred,  and  most  venerable  asylum.  In 
vain  is  the  practice  tolerated  by  the  false  piety  of 


200  ON    THE    ZEAL    OF    PASTORS 

the  Pharisees :  in  vain  is  it  protected  by  the 
avarice,  perhaps,  of  the  first  ministers  of  the 
Lord  :  in  vain  does  it  seem  to  be  authorized  by 
ancient  and  public  custom  :  these  are  the  very 
motives  that  fill  him  with  a  new  indignation  ; 
and  the  more  it  appears  difficult,  and  dangerous 
to  apply  a  remedy  to  this  scandalous  and  inde 
cent  abuse,  the  less  does  he  use  of  delay  or  of 
caution,  in  purging  the  holy  place  from  its  de 
filement. 

Zeal  against  the  vices  and  the  scandals,  which 
outrage  the  glory  of  God,  and  dishonour  the 
sanctity  of  religion,  is  then  the  first  example, 
which  Jesus  Christ,  in  the  discharge  of  the  pub 
lic  functions  of  his  ministry,  in  Jerusalem,  has 
left  to  the  pastors  of  his  church.  He  sends  us,  in 
deed,  as  lambs  who,  in  the  violence  and  the  out 
rages  offered  to  themselves,  are  meek  and  silent, 
but  who  know  how  to  raise  their  voice,  and  roar 
as  lions,  when  the  glory  of  the  Lord,  whose 
ministers  they  are,  is  insulted.  He  disapproves, 
it  is  true,  the  zeal  of  the  two  disciples,  who  wish 
to  bring  down  fire  from  heaven,  upon  an  un 
believing  city,*  but  in  it,  he  blames  only  its  im 
petuosity  and  bitterness  :  he  condemns  the  zeal, 

*Lukc.  c.  ix.  TV.  54.  55. 


AGAINST   SCANDALS,  201 

that  would  punish^  rather  than  correct,  and 
teaches  us,,  that  zeal  without  charity.,  is  but  the 
sally  of  humour,  and  not  the  impulse  of  grace. 
In  fine,,  he  gives  us  to  understand,  that  we  can 
not  pluck  up  all  the  scandals  of  his  kingdom, 
because  the  malice  of  man  is  always  on  the  in 
crease  ;  but  he  wishes,  that  we  should  denounce, 
without  ceasing,  a  woe  and  an  everlasting  curse 
against  the  sinner,  who  scandalizes  his  brother; 
that  we  should  generously  condemn  the  scan 
dals,  which  we  cannot  extirpate,  or  at  least,  that 
we  should  wreep  in  secret,  over  those,  which  we 
are  not  permitted  to  censure  in  public. 

Zeal  against  vices  and  scandals,  is  then  the 
most  essential  duty  of  the  minister  of  Jesus 
Christ  :  this  will  be  my  first  reflection.  But 
whence  comes  it,  that  this  zeal  is  so  rarely  found 
in  the  pastors  of  the  church  ?  This  is  what  I 
propose  to  myself,  to  unfold  in  the  course  of  this 
instruction. 

FIRST    REFLECTION. 

From  the  time  in  which  the  church,  by  the 
sacerdotal  unction,  associates  us  to  its  ministry, 
we  become  co-operators  with  God  for  the  salva 
tion  of  our  brethren ;  we  enter  into  a  partici 
pation  of  the  priesthood  of  Christ,  who  has  been 


202  6N   THE   ZEAL   OF   PASTORS 

established  a  Priest  and  a  Pontiff,  only  to  de 
stroy  the  reign  of  sin,  to  render  to  his  Father, 
that  glory,  of  which  the  malice  of  men  hud  de 
prived  him,  and  to  form  a  people,  spiritual,  in 
nocent,  and  faithful,  an  assembly  of  Saints  to 
glorify  him  in  every  age. 

Thus  a  Priest  is  a  sacred  minister,  charged, 
on  earth,  with  the  interests  of  God,  and  the 
sanctification  of  men;  in  continuing  here  below, 
the  priesthood  of  Jesus  Christ,  he  continues  his 
mission  and  his  love  for  men  :  his  prayers,  his 
desires,  his  studies,  his  anxieties,  his  labors,  his 
functions,  all  should  have  for  only  object,  the 
salvation  of  his  brethren :  whatever  is  not  refer 
red  to  this  noble  intent,  is  foreign  to  the  sanctity 
of  his  destination :  he  quits  his  proper  sphere, 
he  dishonours  it,  he  renounces  the  high  dignity 
of  his  calling,  he  covers,  and  disgraces  himself 
with  the  foul,  but  just  reproach  of  a  species  of 
apostacy,  from  the  moment,  in  which  he  lends 
himself  to  other  cares,  and  other  occupations, 
than  those,  which  tend  to  enlarge  the  kingdom 
of  Christ,  and  form  to  his  eternal  Father,  wor 
shippers,  in  spirit  and  in  truth. 

Elias  mounting  to  heaven,  and  leaving  to  his 
disciple  Eliseus,  his  spirit  of  zeal,  was  but  the 
figure  of  Jesus  Christ,  who,  after  ascending  to 


AGAINST   SCANDALS.  203 

the  right  hand  of  his  Father,,  sent  down  upon  his 
disciples,  that  spirit  of  zeal  and  of  fire,  which 
was  to  be  the  seal  of  their  priesthood  and  of 
their  mission,  and  which,  by  consequence,  was 
to  inflame  and  purify  the  universe,  and  carry  to 
every  people  of  the  earth,  the  science  of  salva 
tion,  and  the  love  of  justice  and  of  truth.  In 
effect,  scarcely  are  they  filled  with  this  holy  spi 
rit,  when  these  men,  till  now  so  timid,  so  soli 
citous  to  hide  themselves  from  the  fury  of  the 
Jews,  burst  with  the  courage  of  lions,  from 
their  retreat,  overcome  every  resistance :  uncon 
scious  and  regardless  of  danger,  they  bear  on 
their  forehead,  the  sign  of  their  divine  master, 
and  an  intrepidity,  which  defies  all  the  powers 
of  the  world  :  before  the  assembled  princes  and 
priests,  they  fearlessly  bear  testimony  to  the  re 
surrection  of  Christ,  and  come  forth  from  the 
presence  of  the  council,  rejoicing  that  they  had 
been  accounted  worthy  to  suffer  for  the  name  of 
Jesus. 

The  land  of  Judea  is  too  confined  for  the  ar 
dor  and  extent  of  their  zeal :  they  pass  from 
city  to  city,  from  province  to  province,  from 
kingdom  to  kingdom  :  they  spread  themselves  to 
the  very  extremities  of  the  earth  :  they  attack 
abuses  the  most  ancient  and  the  most  deeply 


20$  ON   THE   ZEAL   OF   PASTORS 

rooted  :  they  tear  from  the  most  ferocious  tribe* 
the  idols,  which  their  ancestors  had  always 
adored :  they  overturn  the  altars  consecrated  by 
the  incense  and  the  homage  of  so  many  ages  : 
they  preach  the  opprobrium  and  the  folly  of  the 
cross  to  the  most  polished  nations,  to  those  that 
gloried  in  their  learning  and  their  eloquence, 
their  philosophy  and  their  wisdom.  The  obsta 
cles  which  present  themselves  on  all  sides,  so  far 
from  relaxing,  serve  but  to  reanimate,  their  zeal 
and  prepare  its  triumph :  tlie  wliole  world  con 
spires  against  them,  and  they  are  stronger  than 
the  world  :  the  cross  and  the  gibbet  are  placed 
before  them,  to  compel  them  to  silence,  and 
they  reply  that  they  cannot  but  announce  what 
things  they  have  heard  and  seen  :*  and  they 
publish  on  the  housetops  what  they  are  forbid 
den  even  to  whisper,  in  secret,  to  the  car.  They 
expire  under  the  sword  of  the  executioner:  new 
torments  are  invented  to  extinguish  the  new 
doctrine  in  their  blood,  and  their  very  blood 
continues  to  announce  it  after  their  death,  and 
the  more  of  it  is  shed  upon  the  earth,  the  more 
numerous  are  the  disciples,  which  it  brings  forth 
to  the  gospel.  Such  is  the  spirit  of  the  priest- 

*  Acts.  c.  iv.  v.  20. 


AGAINST    SCANDALS.  205 

hood  and  of  the  Apostleship  which  they  received, 
for  the  priesthood  and  the  Apostleship  form,  in 
one  sense,  but  the  same  ministry.  Every  Priest 
is  an  Apostle  and  envoy  of  Jesus  Christ,,  among 
men  ;  he  exercises  his  functions  it  is  true,  in 
dependance,  but  he  is  a  Priest  only  to  exercise 
them.  His  zeal  is  under  the  controul  of  the 
first  pastors,  and  it  is  for  them  to  direct  it;  but 
zeal  is  still  the  first  duty  of  the  priesthood. 

Behold,  my  brethren,  to  what  we  have  been 
consecrated  in  receiving  the  imposition  of  hands. 
The  church  indeed  does  not  require  of  each  one 
of  us,  to  go  and  preach  Jesus  Christ  to  barba 
rous  nations,  and  water  distant  climes  with  our 
blood,  that  we  may  make  the  gospel  fructify, 
and  carry  the  knowledge  of  Christ  and  the  ti 
dings  of  salvation  to  the  people  that  have  not  )et 
heard  his  name:  this  is  a  ministry  reserved  to  a 
small  number  of  Apostolic  labourers,  who  per 
petuate  in  the  church  the  first  spirit,  with  the 
first  functions,  of  the  Apostleship,  and  who  by 
their  toils  unceasingly  advance  the  accomplish 
ment  of  the  prophecies  and  the  promises  rela 
ting  to  the  plenitude  of  the  Gentiles,  that  is,  one 
day,  to  enter  into  the  new  Jerusalem  :  but  our 
mission  because  it  is  less  laborious,  is  not  there 
fore  less  extensive  nor  less  apostolical.  We 


206  ON    THE    ZEAL    OF   PASTORS 

may  leave  those  uncultivated  and  savage  lands 
to  the  generous  labourers,,  who,  to  scatter  the 
holy  seed,  brave  the  perils  of  the  ocean,  and 
the  barbarism  of  a  thousand  tribes,  but  we  are 
destined  to  purge  the  field  of  Christ  of  the 
cockle,  and  to  pluck  up  the  scandals  which  grow 
in  it,  without  ceasing.  If  our  zeal  be  not  he 
roic  enough  to  attempt  the  conquest  of  new  na 
tions  and  add  other  lands  to  his  inheritance,  we 
ought  at  least,  to  cultivate  those*  which  our  pre 
decessors  have  acquired  for  him,  and  which  are 
become  his  ancient  possession.  They  found 
them  consecrated  to  demons,  and  stained  with  the 
blood  of  a  thousand  profane  sacrifices :  the  bar 
barism  and  blindness  of  our  ancestors,  jealous 
even  to  fury  of  a  worship  so  impious  and  ,sp 
foolish,  did  not  affright  them  :  they  announced 
to  them  the  doctrine  of  salvation:  the  devil  long 
defended  his  temples  and  his  altars  against  their 
•zeal :  he  armed  against  them  the  superstition  of 
the  people :  cities  and  countries  flowed  with 


*  The  original  being  addressed  to  an  audience  «f 
French  ecclesiastics,  refers  solely  to  the  progress 
and  the  fate  of  religion  in  Gaul:  but  the  application 
to  other  countries  is  easy  and  natural,  and  to. Ire 
land  in  particular,  the  observations  may,  it  is  hoped, 
be  extended,  without  injury  to  the  design,  or  vio 
lence  to  the  spirit,  of  the  text.— T. 


AGAINST   SCANDALS. 

their  blood :  and  even  at  this  day,  the  places 
still  subsist  where  these  generous  champions  of 
the  faith,  abandoned  to  the  malice  and  the  rage 
of  the  wicked,  consummated  their  sacrifice. 
Those  venerable  monuments  are  found  in  the 
greater  part  of  the  cities  of  Europe,  and  em 
bellish  them  far  more  than  the  columns  and  the 
statues  raised  by  the  vanity  of  the  conqueror^ 
for  his  proud  trophies  transmit  to  after-ages, 
little  eke  than  the  memory  of  calamities  and 
slaughter;  but  the  monuments  of  religion  an 
nounce  the  salvation  of  entire  nations,  coun 
tries  delivered  from  the  captivity  of  the  devil 
and  subdued  to  Christ,  by  the  ministry  and  the 
blood  of  those  Christian  heroes.  In  effect,  the 
faith  was  not  extinguished  and  buried  in  their 
graves:  their  executioners  themselves  became 
their  disciples :  new  Apostles  arose,  as  it  were, 
from  their  ashes,  and  nations,  where  the  impi 
ous  and  mysterious  abominations  of  the  Druids 
had,  for  ages,  formed  the  religion  of  the  people, 
were  numbered  amongst  the  most  pure  and  flou 
rishing  portion  of  the  church  of  Christ.  One 
of  these  portions  they  have  transmitted  to  our 
care,  to  us  who  glory  in  the  title  of  their  suc 
cessors  :  they  bequeathed  it  to  us  pure,  fervent, 
and  yet  filled  with  the  choicest  gifts  of  the  Holj 


208  ON    THE    ZEAL    OF    PASTORS 

Spirit  which  they  had  received.  The  lapse  of 
years  which  by  a  destiny.,  unavoidable  in  human 
things,  draws  along  with  it,  a  change  of  manners 
and  a  relaxation  of  discipline,  has  altered  its  first 
innocence,  and  disfigured  almost  all  its  beauty. 
The  sacred  doctrine  which  they  left,  has,  it  i* 
true,  suffered  nothing  from  the  lapse  and  the 
corruption  of  ages  :  it  has  reached  us  pure  as  it 
was  found  in  its  source :  the  heresies  and  the 
novel  doctrines  which  proud  and  foolish  spirits 
have  attempted,  from  time  to  time,  to  spread 
amongst  us,  endured  but  for  a  little,  and  in  the 
end  have  served  only  to  establish  and  confirm 
the  ancient  faith.  But  our  morals  have  been  far 
from  sharing  in  the  privilege  and  the  stability 
of  our  doctrine ;  for  whilst  we  have  preserved 
with  pious  care,  the  pure  belief,  we  have,  alas! 
far  degenerated  from  the  fervor  and  the  inno 
cence  of  our  fathers. 

It  is  then  our  duty ;  it  is  for  us,  to  restore  the 
inheritance  of  Jesus  Christ  to  its  first  beauty. 
Were  it  necessary  to  tear  it  from  the  empire 
of  Satan  and  of  idolatry,  and  to  purchase  it  at 
the  price  of  our  blood,  like  our  holy  predeces 
sors,  the  greatness  and  the  peril  of  the  enter 
prise  might  alarm  our  weakness  :  but  we  find  it 
already  secured  to  Christ,  and  become,  by  the 


AGAINST  SCANDALS.  209 

zeal  and  the  suffering's  of  our  fathers,  his  pos 
session  and  his  patrimony,  and  nothing'  left  for 
ns  but 'to  repair  the  ravages  of  time  and  decay. 
To  labour  in  the  work  of  the  gospel,  it  is  no 
longer    necessary    to    expose    ourselves   to   the 
wheel  and  the  gibbet:   nothing  more  is  requi 
site  than  a   sincere  and  ardent  zeal,    a  respect 
for  our  ministry,  that  we  be  touched  with  the 
glory  of  Jesus    Christ   and    with    the    scandals 
that  afflict  and  dishonour  his  inheritance ;  in  a 
word,  that  we  be  ever  mindful  that  we  are  his 
ministers  and  Apostles,  and  that  we  succeed  to 
those  who  delivered  up  their  souls  to  gain  un 
to  him  the  very  people  who  are  now  enstrust- 
ed  to  us.     We  glory  in  being  the  successors  of 
their»ministry,  but  our  glory  is  nothing,  if  we 
inherit  neither  their  spirit  nor  their  zeal.    They 
raised  the  sacred  edifice  in  spite  of  the  winds 
and  the  tempests  which  threatened,  at  every  mo 
ment,  to  bury  them  under  its   ruins  :    they  ce 
mented  it  with  their  blood  :   they  were  its  labo 
rious  founders  :    we  are  but  its  peaceful  guar 
dians  :  the  most  painful  of  our  functions  extend 
no  further  than  to  efface  the  stains  of  time,  to 
restore  what  is  darksome  to  its  first  brightness, 
to  replace  what  falls,  to  support  what  is  totter 
ing  ;  in  fine,  to  close  the  entrance  of  the  holy 

p 


210  ON    THE    ZEAL    OF    PASTORS 

place  against  the  unclean,  or  rather  to  dispose 
them  to  present  themselves  in  it  like  the  publi 
can,  striking-  their  breasts  in  repentance,  with 
hearts  full  of  sorrow.  In  a  word,  whatever 
was  grand,  whatever  was  heroic,  whatever  ap 
peared  to  surpass  the  powers  of  nature,  has 
been  effected  by  our  predecessors  :  what  re 
mains  to  be  done  by  us,  is  almost  nothing;  it 
is  to  preserve  to  Jesus  Christ,  what  they  ac 
quired  for  him  ;  to  watch,  lest  the  enemy  sow 
tares  in  the  divine  field  :  to  cultivate  the  plants 
which  the  heavenly  Father  has  planted,  to  water 
them  incessantly  from  the  streams  of  doctrine 
and  of  the  sacraments,  that  a  fatal  drought  may 
not  arrest  their  growth,  and  destroy  their  fruit- 
fulness.  •' 

Can  we  be  excused,  if  we  refuse  to  devote 
ourselves  to  functions  so  sweet,  so  easy,  so  con 
soling?  Can  we  be  worthy  to  bear  the  name 
of  the  ministers  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  to  be  es 
teemed  the  successors  of  these  Apostolic  men,  if 
through  our  indolence,  we  suffer  the  precious 
fruit  of  their  blood  and  their  labors  to  perish; 
if  we  behold  without  being  moved,  iniquity  and 
malice,  increasing  every  day  among  men  ;  scan 
dals  become  almost  public  usages  ;  faith  dead, 
without  charity  and  without  works,  in  the  grca{- 


AGAINST    SCANDALS, 


211 


cr  part  of  christians  ;  God  almost  as  unknown 
amongst  us,  as  he  was  formerly  in  the  midst 
of  the  superstitious  and  idolatrous  Athens,  and 
the  people  of  the  inheritance,  the  holy  nation,, 
christians  once  a  sweet  odor  of  Christ  in  the 
midst  of  a  pagan  and  corrupt  world,  to  which 
the  innocence  and  sanctity  of  their  morals  made 
them  an  object  of  admiration,,  now  dishonour 
ing  Christianity  by  excesses  at  which  paganism 
would  have  blushed,  and  by  the  open  irregu 
larity  of  their  lives,  causing  the  enemies  of 
truth  to  blaspheme  our  holy  religion  ? 

Whence  comes  it  however,  that  the  desola 
tion  of  the  heritage  of  Christ,  which  we  wit 
ness  every  day,  does  not  affect  us  ?  Whence 
comes  it  that  wre  imagine  we  have  satisfied  our 
obligations,  when  we  have  repeated,  oftentimes 
without  attention,  certain  prayers  prescribed  by 
the  church,  and  discharged  with  negligence, 
certain  external  duties  of  the  divine  worship, 
attached  to  the  situations  we  hold  in  the  minis 
try  ?  Are  we  Priests  only  to  exhibit  ourselves 
to  the  people  in  our  churches,  to  appear  clothed 
with  the  dignity  and  the  splendor  of  the  priest 
hood,  to  adorn  with  vain  and  idle  pomp,  those 
material  edifices,  and  leave  our  brethren,  the 
living  temples  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  to  perish  ? 


212  ON    THE    ZEAL    OF    PASTORS 

Is  not  the  most  essential  of  our  functions,  that 
at  least,  to  which  all  the  others  may  be  referred, 
the  edification  and  the  salvation  of  the  faithful? 
Although  the  church  should  not  have  confided 
to  our  care,  a  particular  portion  of  the  flock,  it 
is,  as  it  were,  all  entrusted  to  our  zeal  and  our 
charity :  by  the  very  priesthood,  we  are  invest 
ed  with  the  mission  of  the  principal  Pastor,  we 
become  the  fathers  of  the  faithful:  the  church 
does  not  intend  to  associate  to  the  sacred  minis 
try,  those  who  will  not  labour  :  we  are  all  indi- 
visibly  charged  with  the  work  of  the  gospel ; 
and  a  minister  who  is  of  no  utility  to  his  bre 
thren  is  a  usurper  of  the  priesthood;  he  has  no 
claim  to  the  title  but  that  which  arises  from  a 
zeal  for  its  offices  and  its  cares. 

SECOND    REFLECTION. 

Let  us  then,  my  brethren,  ascend  to  the  ori 
gin  of  a  defect  so  common  in  the  ministers  of 
the  Church.  Whence  comes  it  that  a  zeal  for 
the  house  of  the  Lord,  that  a  holy  ardor  for  the 
sanctification  of  the  flock,  that  a  burning  desire 
to  extend  the  kingdom  of  Christ,  that  a  lively 
sorrow  to  behold  his  doctrine  despised,  and  the 
greater  part  of  our  brethren  perishing;  whence 
comes  it,  that  dispositions  so  worthy  of  the 


AGAINST   SCANDALS.  213 

priesthood,,  so  conformable  to  our  vocation.,  so 
honourable  to  our  ministry,  once  so  common 
among1  the  first  labourers  of  the  Gospel,  are 
now  so  rarely  found  in  the  clergy?  Whence 
comes  a  misfortune  so  universal  and  so  deplo 
rable?  for  never  has  the  church  seen  her  altars 
surrounded  with  so  many  ministers;  never  did 
the  field  of  Christ  support  within  its  enclosure 
more  labourers  capable  of  cultivating*  it.  The 
pious  generosity  of  the  faithful*  in  multiplying 
the  support,  and  increasing  the  number,  of  the 
clergy,  has,  at  the  same  time,  multiplied  the  suc 
cours,  which  the  church  has  a  right  to  expect 
from  their  services ;  never  did  she  stand  in 
greater  need  of  those  succours  :  never  did  the 
multiplicity  of  vices  and  of  scandals  render  the 
functions  of  zeal  more  necessary.  Again,  then 
whence  comes  it,  that  zeal,  fur  more  necessary 
now  than  at  any  former  period,  seems  to  be 
quite  extinct  in  the  greater  part  of  those  whom 
it  should  most  inflame  ?  Behold  the  cause. 


*  Massillon  alludes,  in  this  place,  to  the  pious 
foundations  so  numerous  in  France  and  on  the  Con 
tinent,  none  of  which  however,  are  to  be  found 
among  the  Catholics  of  these  islands.  A' slight  alte 
ration  has,  therefore  been  made,  to  adapt  the  ienor 
of  the  discourse  to  the  actual  circumstances  of  these 
countries. — T. 


ON    THE    ZEAL    OF    PASTORS 

In  some  it  is  the  comfort  and  affluence  which 
they  enjoy  from  the  very  bounty  of  the  church, 
or  inherit  from  the  patrimony  of  their  ancestors, 
which  authorizes  them  to  lead  without  scruple, 
an  easy  and  tranquil  life,  and  to  look  upon  their 
situation  as  a  privilege  that  exempts  them  from 
the  laborious  functions  of  the  ministry  :  to  the 
needy  and  indigent,  they  leave  the  care  of  God's 
glory,  of  the  honor  of  the  church,  and  of  (he 
salvation  of  their  brethren  for  whom  Christ  died. 
It  would  appear  that  the  duties  of  the  priest 
hood,  so  holy,  so  sublime,  so  far  raised  above 
the  ministry  of  the  Angels,  had  no  other  end 
than  to  provide,  like  the  low  and  mechanic  arts, 
for  mean  and  temporal  wants,  and  not  for  the 
spiritual  necessities  of  souls  :  it  would  appear 
that  it  is  poverty  and  indigence  alone,  and  not 
zeal,  duty  and  charity,  that  should  bring  la 
bourers  to  the  gospel ;  as  if  to  co-operate  in  the 
redemption  of  man,  to  render  the  sacrifice  and 
mediation  of  Christ  profitable  to  our  brethren,  to 
be  the  ministers  of  the  designs  of  God  for  the 
consummation  of  the  elect,  to  continue  on  earth 
the  great  work  for  which  the  Son  of  God  was 
sent  down  from  heaven,  were  a  mercenary  la 
bor  reserved  for  those  whom  hunger  and  lowli 
ness  of  birth  might  force  to  seek  the  employ- 


AGAINST    SCANDALS. 


215 


ment ;  and  that  sordid  interest  alone  must  fur 
nish  co-operators  to  Jesus  Christ,  ministers  to 
the  church,  sanctifiers  to  the  faithful,  and  dis 
pensers  of  the  mysteries  of  God,  to  man. 

You  can  dispense  with  the  temporal  support 
of  the  faithful ;    but  are  you  the  less   their  fa 
ther  and  their  guide?  you  do   not  live  by  the 
altar,  but  are  you  the  less  consecrated  to  its  mi 
nistry  ?     When  the  church  elevated  you  to  the 
priesthood,  did  she  intend  to  honour  you  with  a 
useless  title  and  not  associate  you  to  the  number 
of  her  labourers  and  her  ministers  ?  would  she 
by  the  imposition  of  hands,  have  called  you  to 
her  assistance,   and  made  you  a    sharer  in  her 
honors,  if  you  declared  you  did  not  intend  to 
take  a  part  in  her  labors  ?     All  the  titles  with 
which  she  invests  you   at  your  ordination,  are 
titles  of  toil,  titles  of  charity,  and  of  solicitude  : 
it  is  her  love  alone  for  the  children  of  God,  that 
causes  her  to  institute  ministers,  and  it  is  this 
love  alone  that  can  make  them   worthy  of  the 
ministry.    Alas!   what  my  brethren?  because  the 
goodness   of  God  has  placed   our  birth   in    the 
midst  of  opulence,  should  his  benefits  authorize 
us  to  be  more  ungrateful,  more  inattentive   to 
his  orders,  and  to  the  duties  of  our  state?    This 
abundance,  far  from  becoming  the  pretext.,  or  be- 


216  ON    THE    ZEAL    OF    PASTORS 

ing  intended  as  an  excuse,  for  our  inactivity,  has 
been  destined  in  the  designs  of  pro\idence,  to 
assist  in  the  discharge,  and  facilitate  the  success, 
of  our  functions.  From  the  moment,  in  which 
the  order  of  heaven  has  consecrated  you  to  the 
church,  it  is  for  her,  that  you  are  all  you  are  : 
rich  or  poor,  you  are  dedicated  to  her  service, 
and  you  must,  according  to  the  example  of  the 
Apostle,  fulfil  your  ministry,  in  abundance  as 
well  as  in  poverty.  Your  wealth  forbids  you  to 
live  by  the  altar,  but  it  does  not  exempt  you  from 
serving  it :  it  is  on  the  contrary  in  serving  it,  at 
your  own  expense,  that  you  will  ensure  a  greater 
blessing  and  more  abundant  fruit.  The  great 
Apostle  himself  considered  it  the  source  of  the 
peculiar  glory,  and  of  the  brilliant  success,  of 
his  Apostleship,  to  have  announced  the  gospel 
without  reward.  You  know  said  he,  in  writing 
to  the  new  Christians,  that  I  have  not  been  a 
burden  to  you;  that  although  like  the  other 
Apostles  I  might  exact  temporal  blessings,  in 
return  for  the  spiritual  ones  which  I  imparted 
to  you,  I  neglected  to  enforce  this  right,  and 
that  the  labor  of  those  hands*  alone,  supplied 
whatever  was  needful  in  my  Apostolic  journies. 

*  1.  Cor.  c.  iv.  v.  12. 


AGAINST    SCANDALS.  217 

To  this  heroical  disinterestedness  does  he  attri 
bute  the  immense  harvest,  which  the  word  of 
the  gospel  produced  amongst  them  through  his 
ministry. 

And  in  effect,  a  holy  pastor,  who  not  content 
to  sacrifice  his  cares,  his  labors,  his  health  to 
the  instruction  and  salvation  of  his  brethren; 
sacrifices  to  them  also  the  abundance  with  which 
providence  may  have  blessed  him  ;  who  pro 
vides,  at  the  same  time,  for  the  necessities  of 
the  soul  and  of  the  body;  with  what  religious 
respect  does  he  not  inspire  the  flock,  for  a  mi 
nistry,  capable  of  rendering  those  who  exercise 
its  functions,  so  generous  and  so  charitable? 
How  great  are  the  benedictions,  which  accom 
pany  the  labors  of  a  minister  of  this  character: 
how  deep  the  impressions  which  his  words  and 
his  exhortations  make  on  hearts,  already  pre 
pared  and  moved  by  his  bounty?  They  love  a  re 
ligion  so  ready  to  succour  the  unfortunate,  and 
they  are  equally  touched  by  the  benefits  \\iiich 
it  bestows  on  the  needy,  and  by  the  crimes  by 
which  they  have  a  thousand  times  dishonoured 
it.  Did  not  Christ  himself,  although  the  mas 
ter  of  all  hearts,  dispose  the  famishing  multi 
tude  to  recognise  the  divinity  of  his  mission  and 
of  his  doctrine,  by  feeding  them  with  miracu- 


218  ON    THE   ZEAL    OF    PASTORS 

lous  bread,  on  the  mountain  ?  Did  not  the  cor 
poral  cures  which  he  wrought,  every  day,  facili 
tate  to  his  grace,  the  cure  of  the  souls  whose 
bodies  were  freed  from  the  infirmities  with  which 
they  were  afflicted  ?  Did  not  his  benefits  always 
prepare  a  way  for  his  instructions?  and  did  not 
his  divine  word  fructify  in  all  places,  because 
he  went  about,  doing  good  to  all?*  And  yet  you 
would  abandon  your  functions,  on  the  very 
ground  that  promises  you  the  greatest  success 
in  the  ministry,  and  because  providence  has  be 
stowed  on  you  greater  means  of  being  useful 
to  your  brethren,  you  imagine  yourself  more 
excused  from  assisting  them  ?  The  first  cause 
then  of  the  want  of  zeal  is  a  state  of  comfort 
and  of  abundance  in  the  ministry. 

But  it  is  true  that  this  is  but  a  pretext,  which 
we  use  to  authorize  us  to  lead  a  commodious 
and  idle  life,  and  to  remove  ourselves  to  a  dis 
tance  from  the  painful  offices  of  the  ministry: 
the  true  cause  of  our  abandonment  of  them,  is 
the  cold  and  languishing  state  of  our  heart;  it 
is  the  want  of  love  for  God,  and  of  charity  for 
our  brethren.  In  vain  do  our  morals  present  to 
the  eyes  of  men,  a  laudable  regularity :  in  vain 

*Acts.  c.  x.  v.  38. 


AGAINST    SCANDALS.  219 

it  is,  that  nothing  appears  in  our  conduct  to- 
wound  the  decency  and  the  gravity  of  our  pro 
fession  :  in  vain  it  is,  that  by  a  smooth,  prudent 
and  tranquil  life,  we  attract  perhaps  the  esteem 
of  the  world,  accustomed  as  it  is,  to  see  others 
of  our  state,  join  disorder  and  scandal  to  idle 
ness:  we  are  dead  in  the  sight  of  God:  his  love 
wrhich  is  inseparable  from  the  love  of  our  bre 
thren,  is  absolutely  extinguished  in  our  hearts  : 
our  regularity  is  only  a  decorum  which  we  think 
due  to  the  world  and  to  the  dignity  of  our  sta 
tion,  but  we  give  nothing  to  God.  In  effect,  my 
brethren,  did  we  love  God,  were  his  glory  dearer 
to  us  than  our  own,  charged  as  we  are  by  our 
ministry,  with  his  interests,  could  we  behold 
without  emotion,  his  honor  every  day  and  in 
every  place,  outraged  by  the  excesses  and  the 
errors  that  are  spread  over  the  face  of  the  earth  ? 
Saint  Paul,  at  the  sight  of  the  superstitions  of 
Athens,  struck  to  see  a  whole  people  who  prided 
themselves  on  their  wisdom,  render  public  and 
sacrilegious  honors  to  a  thousand  strange  and 

O  o 

fabulous  divinities,  whilst  the  one  true  God  of 
the  universe,  was  unknown  amongst  them,  trem 
bled,  says  the  sacred  historian,  with  a  holy  zeal, 
felt  himself  agitated  by  the  most  lively  trans 
ports  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  of  the  divine  love. 


220 


0\    THE    ZEAL    OF    PASTORS 


with  which  he  was  inflamed:  incitabatur  spirt- 
ttts  ejus  in  ipso,  videns  idololatrm  deditam  civi- 
tatem;*  and  this  great  Apostle,  alone,  without 
support,  unknown,  mean  and  abject  in  appear 
ance,  was  not  to  be  prevented  by  all  the  power 
and  majesty  of  the  Areopagus,  from  appearing 
before  so  grave  and  numerous  an  assembly,  from 
announcing  to  them  the  God  whom  they  knew 
not,  and  the  vanity  and  absurdity  of  the  idols  to 
which  they  had  raised  such  magnificent  altars. 
And  if  by  the  just  judgment  of  God,  his  zeal, 
to  the  greater  part  of  those  false  sages,  appeared 
nothing  but  folly,  yet  the  word  of  the  gospel  did 
not  return  to  him,  empty:  Dionysius,  an  Areo- 
pagite,  Damaris  a  holy  woman,  and  many  other* 
received  with  thanksgiving  the  benefit  of  the 
light  of  truth,  which  the  Lord  had  now  caused 
to  shine  in  the  midst  of  darkness. 

When  the  fire  of  divine  love  truly  burns  in 
the  heart,  it  produces  in  the  minister  of  the 
altar,  a  lively  grief  to  see  his  heavenly  mas 
ter  insulted,  his  holy  law  violated  and  despised 
by  the  greater  part  of  men  ;  an  ardent  desire  to 
avenge  his  glory,  to  procure  for  him  the  homage 
and  the  gratitude,  due  to  his  supreme  Majesty 

*  Acts.  c.  xvii.  v.  16. 


AGAINST   SCANDALS.  221 

and  boundless  goodness ;  a  holy  eagerness  to 
devote  himself,  to  use  his  feeble  talents,  to  sacri 
fice  his  very  life  to  gain  to  him,  true  worshippers,, 
to  manifest  his  name  and  his  glory,  to  inspire 
into  all  men  the  same  sentiments  of  fear,  of  love 
and  of  gratitude  with  which  he  himself  is  fully 
penetrated.  We  cannot  love,  and  not  be  sensi 
ble  to  the  insults  offered  to  the  object  of  our  af 
fections  ;  we  cannot  be  sensible  to  them  without 
employing  all  our  efforts  to  prevent  or  arrest 
them,  particularly  when  besides  the  obligation 
common  to  all  men,  our  ministry  makes  this  a 
peculiar  and  essential  duty  ;  a  duty  which  is  the 
very  foundation,  and  which  includes  all  the  other 
duties  of  our  profession. 

And  even  though  our  zeal  should  not  be  bless 
ed  with  success,  though  the  truths  which  we 
announce  to  sinners,  should  fall  upon  hearts, 
hard  and  insensible,  still  we  should  have  the  con 
solation  of  having  rendered  glory  to  God,  and 
done  what  was  in  our  power,  to  procure  him 
respect  from  those  who  insult  him.  He  does  not 
always  console  his  ministers,  by  the  prompt  and 
visible  success  of  their  labors :  but  his  word 
never  fails  to  operate  in  secret :  the  holy  seed 
which  seems  to  fall  upon  an  ungrateful  soil,  is 
not  therefore  lost,  and  sooner  or  later  it  will 


ON    THE    ZEAL    OF    PASTORS 

bring  forth  the  fruits  of  salvation.  God  has 
his  own  moments,  and  it  is  not  for  us  to  point 
them  out,  to  his  power  and  his  wisdom  :  his 
spirit  worketh  where,  and  when,  it  wisheth  :  we 
see  the  changes  which  it  produces,  but  the  secret 
and  admirable  ways  by  which  they  are  brought 
about,  no  man  knows :  these  are  among  those 
profound  secrets  of  providence,  which  will  be 
disclosed  only  in  the  great  day  of  revelation. 
From  all,  he  requires,  care,  toil,  cultivation ;  to 
himself  alone,  he  reserves  the  increase:  he  com 
mands  us  to  teach,  to  exhort,  to  reprove,  not  to 
detain  the  truth  in  injustice  but  to  make  it  re 
sound  in  the  ears  of  all :  it  is  he  alone  that  can 
open  to  it  the  entrance  of  the  heart. 

But  my  brethren,  the  fear  that  brilliant  success 
may  not  attend  our  efforts,  springing,  as  it  does, 
from  pride  and  self-love,  so  far  from  justifying 
our  remissness,  would  serve  but  to  render  it  the 
more  criminal.  Yet  such  fear  is  not  the  real 
cause  of  the  neglect  of  our  functions  ;  the  true 
reason  has  been  already  given,  it  is  that  we  arc 
concerned  neither  for  the  glory  of  God  nor  the 
salvation  of  our  brethren.  And  truly  as  an 
Apostle  says,  how  shall  we  be  alive  to  the 
interests  and  the  honor  of  God  whom  we  see 
not,  whilst  we  arc  regardless  of  the  wants  and 


AGAINST   SCANDALS.  223 

the  ruin  of  our  brethren  whom  we  see?*  can 
we,  without  emotion,  without  an  endeavour  to 
save  them,  see  those  perishing,  whom  we  love  ; 
especially  when  they  are  our  brethren,  when  we 
are  appointed  to  watch  over  them,  when  their 
salvation  is  to  be  the  fruit  of  our  care ;  when 
they  are  entrusted  to  us,  as  a  precious  deposite 
of  which  we  shall  render  a  severe  account; 
when  their  destruction  becomes  always  the 
cause  of  the  condemnation  and  the  perdition  of 
ourselves? 

Saint  Paul  wished  to  be  an  anathema  for  his 
brethren;  that  is  to  say,  he  accounted  as  nothing 
his  labors,  his  persecutions,  his  disgraces,  what 
ever  he  had  endured,  for  them ;  he  would  have 
wished,  had  it  been  possible,  to  suffer  beyond 
the  bounds  or  duration  of  the  present  world,  if 
their  salvation  had  required  it  of  him  :  his  con 
solations,  his  afflictions,  his  anxieties,  whatever 
passed  in  his  heart,  had  no  other  object  than 
their  progress  and  perseverance  in  the  faith 
which  he  had  announced  to  them :  his  letters 
breathe  nothing  but  touching,  generous  and 
Apostolic  tenderness :  you  are,  said  he  to  them, 
the  shining  proofs  of  my  Apostleship ;  that  is  to 

*  I.John,  c.  iv.  v.  20. 


ON    THE    ZEAL    OF    PASTORS 

say,  I  am  worthy  of  the  glorious  title  of  Apostle 
and  Minister  of  Jesus  Christ,  only  in  as  much 
as  I  suffer,  and  expose  myself  to  every  thing, 
to  hunger,  to  thirst,  to  nakedness,  and  to  the 
most  frightful  torments,  to  bring  you  to  the 
knowledge  of  truth.  Yes,  my  brethren,  we  are 
worthy  of  bearing  the  venerable  name  of  mi 
nisters  of  Christ,  only  in  as  much  as  we  love  our 
brethren  for  whom  Christ  died,  and  spare  no 
care,  no  toils,  not  even  life  itself,  to  snatch  them 
from  the  empire  of  Satan.  We  are  says  an  an 
cient  father,  the  Vicars  of  the  Charity  of  Christ: 
we  succeed  to  that  burning  love,  with  which  he 
was  inflamed  for  men;  he  has  made  us  the  depo 
sitaries  of  it:  he  perpetuates  his  priesthood  in 
us,  only  to  perpetuate  his  love;  that  tender  love 
which  so  eagerly  sought,  even  a  single  strayed 
sheep ;  that  paternal  love  which  received  with 
striking  marks  of  the  most  lively  joy,  the  son 
who  rebelled,  was  lost  and  found  again ;  that  un 
conquerable  love  which  forgot  fatigue,  suste 
nance,  and  all  its  necessities,  to  instruct  a  wo 
man  of  Samaria ;  that  generous  love  which  shed 
tears  of  affliction  over  the  faithless  Jerusalem, 
now  about  to  perish  without  resource,  because 
it  had  refused  to  receive  the  peace  and  salva-- 
tion  which  his  goodness  and  mercy  had  prof- 


AGAINST    SCANDALS.  225 

fered;  in  fine,  that  inexhaustible  love,  which 
sighed  for  the  baptism  of  blood,  in  which  he  was 
to  be  baptized  on  the  cross,  because  man  was 
to  find  in  it,  the  remedy  of  all  his  evils,  the  price 
of  his  redemption,  and  reconciliation  with  his 
eternal  Father. 

Now  do  we  feel  even  a  single  spark  of  this 
love  in  our  hearts?  are  we  afflicted  at  the  ruin  of 
our  brethren  ?  do  we  like  Jesus  pour  forth  our 
tears  over  the  vices  which  have  so  frightfully  in 
undated  every  state  and  condition  of  life  ;  the 
court,  the  city,  the  country,  the  great,  the  peo 
ple,  the  rich,  the  poor  ?  Alas !  we  learn  with 
eagerness  and  with  pleasure,  the  most  secret, 
the  most  afflicting  and  the  most  shameful  trans 
gressions  of  our  brethren  :  the  story  of  those 
disorders  which  are  concealed  from  the  public, 
excites  rather  our  curiosity  than  our  sorrow  ; 
and  we  publish  them,  with  a  secret  satisfaction 
to  those,  who  have  not  yet  heard  the  tale :  we 
claim  the  praise  of  being  better  acquainted  than 
others,  with  the  private  licentiousness  of  the  pa 
lace,  of  the  city  or  of  our  neighbourhood :  the 
errors  of  our  brethren  are  to  us,  a  subject  to 
amuse  our  idleness,  rather  than  to  touch  our 
pity ;  and  instead  of  exciting  our  grief  or  sti 
mulating  our  zeal,  seem  rather  destined  to  serve 


226  ON    THE    ZEAL    OF    PASTORS 

as  the  matter  of  worthless  conversation.  Thus, 
morals  become  every  day,  more  corrupt,  because 
the  zeal  of  the  ministers  of  the  Lord,  is  every 
day,  more  and  more  relaxed :  thus  the  torrent 
of  crime  and  of  scandal  spreads  over  the  whole 
earth,  because  but  few  of  Apostolic  spirit  are 
found,  who  might  oppose  themselves  like  a  wall 
of  brass,  to  its  desolating-  progress.  The  greater 
part  of  sinners  live,  tranquil  in  their  guilt,  be* 
cause  they  hear  not  those  voices  of  thunder, 
which  animated  by  the  spirit  of  God,  are  alone 
capable  of  awaking  them  from  their  lethargy. 
The  world  by  long  habituating  us  to  its  disor 
ders  and  its  scandals,  has  rendered  us  insensi 
ble  to  their  enormity:  we  look  upon  the  sad 
spectacle  of  its  folly,  as  an  evil  without  remedy, 
one  which  has  commenced  with  the  world,  and 
which  will  terminate  only  with  the  world  :  we 
persuade  ourselves  that  the  morals  of  the  pre 
sent  days,  have  been  the  morals  of  every  age : 
we  forget  those  happy  times,  in  which  a  single 
transgressor  was  looked  upon  as  a  monster  and 
a  prodigy  in  the  midst  of  a  numerous  Church;* 
and  in  which  the  crimes  we  treat  as  mere  weak 
nesses,  were  expiated  by  separation  from  the 
assembly  of  the  faithful,  and  by  the  tedious  ri 
gors  of  public  penance.  No,  my  brethren., 

*  1.  Cor,  c.  v. 


AGAINST    SCANDALS. 


227 


Christianity  has  been  corrupted  only  by  the  cor 
ruption,  the  want  of  zeal,  and  the  indolence  of 
the  clergy.  The  church  would  quickly  resume 
her  first  brightness,  were  we  to  resume  the  first 
spirit  of  the  holy  pastors  who  have  preceded  us : 
were  we  ourselves  to  change,  all  things  would 
change  with  us.  Disorders  now  become  uni 
versal,  far  from  justifying  or  extenuating  our 
infidelity,  depose  against  us,  and  render  it  the 
more  criminal :  it  is  through  our  means  alone, 
they  have  been  introduced  among  Christians, 
and  have  infected  Christianity  :  it  is  by  us  alone 
that  they  are  perpetuated  :  they  are  the  unfor 
tunate  work  of  our  degeneracy  and  remissness; 
how  then  can  they  authorize  or  excuse  our  ne 
gligence  and  tepidity  ? 

Yet,  my  brethren,  it  is  but  too  true,  that  it 
is  upon  this  very  ground  of  the  universality  and 
publicity  of  disorder,  that  we  justify  our  apathy 
•and  reconcile  ourselves  to  our  inditference  for 
the  salvation  of  our  brethren :  and  this  is  a 
third  cause  of  the  want  of  zeal. 

That  is  to  say,  it  is  a  base  timidity,  which 
dares  not  raise  its  voice  against  common  pre 
judices,  and  which  is  more  solicitous  about  the 
vain  suffrages  of  men,  than  about  their  impor 
tant  and  eternal  interests  :  it  is  a  criminal  hu 
man  respect,  which  renders  us  more  attentive 


228  ON    THE    ZEAL    OF    PASTORS 

and  more  sensible  to  our  own  glory,  than  to 
the  glory  of  (Jod,  of  which  we  are  the  deposi 
taries  :  it  is  the  prudence  of  the  flesh,  which 
represents  zeal,  that  heavenly  wisdom,  under  the 
false  ideas  of  excess,  of  indiscretion  and  of  rash 
ness:  a  new  pretext  which  totally  extinguishes 
the  spirit  of  zeal,  in  the  hearts  of  the  greater 
part  of  the  clergy. 

We  honour  our  cowardice  with  the  specious 
names  of  moderation  and  reserve;  under  pre 
tence  that  zeal  must  not  be  carried  too  far,  we 
lay  it  a^-ide  altogether  :  by  continually  wish 
ing  to  avoid  the  dangers  of  imprudence  and 
precipitancy,  we  sufler  ourselves,  to  fall  with 
out  scruple,  into  those  of  apathy  and  indo 
lence.  We  would  wish  to  render  ourselves 
useful  to  sinners,  and  at  the  same  time,  render 
them  fav  orable  to  us ;  that  is,  we  should  like  a 
zckal  that  would  bring  applause,  should  like  to 
stand  forth  against  the  passions  of  men,  and  yet 
attract  their  praise,  to  condemn  the  disorders 
which  they  love,  and  yet  to  be  applauded  by  the 
very  persons  whom  we  condemn.  But  how  vain 
to  expect  to  apply  the  knife  to  the  sore,  with 
out  the  cries  or  the  pangs  of  the  diseased  ?  No, 
my  brethren,  let  us  not  deceive  ourselves,  if 
zeal,  Apostolic,  courageous,  wise  and  disinte 
rested  ;  if  the  zeal  that  could  once  gay  to  the 


AGAINST    SCANDALS.  229 

Cesars,  David  whom  you  have  imitated  in  his 
transgressions,  imitate  in  his  repentance  ;*  that 
zeal  which  once  converted  the  world,  if  such 
zeal  is  so  rarely  found  amongst  us,  it  is,  be 
cause  in  the  discharge  of  our  functions,  \ve  seek 
only  ourselves,  instead  of  seeking  the  glory  of 
Jesus  Christ  and  the  good  of  our  brethren.  Our 
first  concern,  on  entering  into  the  ministry,  is 
not  whether  we  shall  be  useful,  but  whether 
we  shall  be  applauded  :  we  esteem  nothing  as 
success,  which  is  not  honourable  to  us,  in  the 
eyes  of  men:  whatever  is  to  be  attended  by  hu 
miliation  and  disgrace  to  us,  although  God  were 
to  be  glorified  by  it,  and  his  grace  were  to  em 
ploy  it,  to  shed  benedictions  on  our  ministry,  we 
avoid  as  a  disappointment  and  a  misfortune  :  it 
would  seem  that  we  are  pastors  of  the  Church, 
only  for  ourselves.  When  the  Apostle  dis 
charged  the  high  duties  of  his  Apostleshfp,  he 
regarded  glory  and  dishonor  with  the  same  in 
difference  :  he  did  not  think  it  possible  to  please 
men,  and  at  the  same  time  save  them  and  be  the 
servant  of  Christ.  But  we  wish  to  unite  things 
which  were  judged  incompatible  by  that  hea 
venly  man,  who  in  heaven  itself,  had  learned 
those  secrets,  which  were  never  committed  to 
the  ear  of  man.  Let  us  disabuse  ourselves  ; 

*  St.  Ambrose. 


230  ON    THE   ZEAL    OF   PASTORS 

Christ  did  not  come  to  bring-  peace  but  the 
sword  :*  the  truths  of  which  we  are  the  inter 
preters  cannot  please  the  world,  because  they 
condemn  the  world.  If,  before  entering  on  our 
functions,  and  endeavouring  to  render  our 
selves  useful  to  our  brethren,  we  wait  till  the 
gospel  shall  become  agreeable  to  the  world, 
and  till  truth  shall  no  longer,  find  any  to  con 
tradict  it,  we  await  what  Christ  has  foretold  us, 
will  never  come  to  pass.  The  world  will  be  to 
the  end,  the  enemy  of  Christ  and  of  his  doc 
trines  ;  it  will  always,  answer  as  the  Jews  did 
to  him,  durus  est  hie  sermo  ;f  these  truths  are 
too  severe  and  unreasonable  ;  these  maxims  are 
impracticable  ;  we  cannot  hear  them,  without 
feeling  ourselves  full  of  aversion  and  revolt :  et 
quis  potest  cum  audire?  The  world  will  never 
alter  this  language;  we  must  always  expect  to 
find  it  armed  and  ranged  against  us ;  opposing 
the  arms  of  flesh  and  blood  against  the  spiritual 
arm^  of  our  holy  warfare ;  thwarting  our  de 
signs,  rendering  our  labors  abortive,  turning 
our  doctrine  into  ridicule,  decrying  our  mi 
nistry,  and  often  pouring  the  venom  of  its 
censure  and  of  its  calumny  upon  our  very  per 
sons. 

*Mat.  c.  x.  v.  34.          t  John.  c.  vi.  v.  61. 


AGAINST    SCANDALS. 


231 


Why  then  should  we  suffer,  what  ought  to  be 
the  consolation  and  crown  of  our  duties  and  of 
our  toils,  to  become  the  very  motive  of  our  dis 
gust  with  our  functions?    Remember  that  the 
success  of  the  sacred  ministry,  was  not  promised 
by  Christ  to  his  Apostles,  but  with  the  contempt, 
the  disgraces,  the  contradictions  and  the  suffer 
ings  that  were  to  accompany   it.     If  they  had 
delayed  to  announce  the  gospel,  till  the  cities 
and  provinces  should  have  been  ready  to  receive 
it  with  applause,  the  whole  world,  would   have 
remained  yet  idolatrous,  and  instead  of  the  pure 
faith  and  sacred  doctrine,  we  should    have   re 
ceived   from    our    ancestors  but    the   sorrowful 
inheritance  of  blindness,  superstition  and   idol 
atry.     The  most   illustrious  diameter,  and  the 
most   demonstrative    proof,    of  the    divinity    of 
Christ's   doctrine,  is,  to  be  always  contradicted 
and  always  triumphant ;  to  stir  up  the  enmity  of 
the  powers  of  the   world,  and  yet  subject  the 
world  to  its  yoke ;  to  revolt  flesh  and  blood,  and 
pride,  and  ambition,  and  false  wisdom,  and  all 
the  passions  of  man,  and  yet  unaided,  without 
force,    without  support,    without  protection,    to 
establish  itself  on  the  ruins  of  his  vices  and  his 
concupiscences,  by  the  arms  of  grace  and  truth, 
alone.     It  is  then  a  want  of  faith,  to  dread  con- 


232  ON    THE    ZEAL    OF  PASTORS 

tradictions  and  impediments,  since  faith  itself 
points  them  out,  as  the  glory  and  the  recompence 
of  our  ministry. 

See,  if  in  every  age,  those  pastors  who  were 
animated  by    the    spirit  of  God,  have    not  had 
contradictions    to  bear  from  the  world,  and  if, 
succeeding  to  the  zeal  and  to  the  ministry  of  the 
Apostles,  they  did  not  also  succeed  to  their  tribu 
lations  and  opprobrium.    It  was  not  by  cautiously 
managing,  but  by  combating  sinners,  that  they 
converted   them  :    it  was  not  by  flattering   the 
great  and  the  powerful  that  they  subjected  them 
to  the  yoke  of  Christ;  but  like  Saint  Paul,*  by 
making  even  kings  tremble  on  their  thrones,  by 
the   terrible  picture   of  the  judgment  to  come, 
and  of  the  punishments  reserved  for  the  worldly 
and  the  voluptuous. 

Yet  we  flatter  ourselves  that  we  shall  succeed 
better  with  the  high  and  the  powerful  by  using 
other  means ;  and  there  is  here  a  perpetual  illu 
sion  which  conceals,  even  from  ourselves,  our 
prevarication  and  our  weakness.  When  our  dis 
courses  are  addressed  to  the  people,  we  display 
against  them,  all  the  severity  and  all  the  frank 
ness  of  a  generous  zeal :  we  condemn  their 

*Acts.  c.  xxiv.  v.  25. 


AGAINST    SCANDALS.  233 

disorders  freely  and  loudly  :  we  lay  aside  that 
cautious  timidity  that  would  soften  the  asperity 
of  truth  :  we  announce  it  without  feai%  without 
evasion,,    without  diminution,   and.,    sometimes, 
even  without  the  mildness  and   the  moderation 
inseparable  from  true  zeal,  which  is  ever  ani 
mated  and  directed  by  charity  and  wisdom.    But 
towards  the  great  as  is  said  by  the  Apostle,,  ice, 
alter  our  language;  scarcely  do  we  dare  to  show 
them.,  at  a  distance,  those  truths  which  displease 
them,  but  which  alone,  could  be  useful  to  them  : 
their  most  public  and  shameful  vices  are  sacred 
in  our  eyes,  and  we  touch  them  only  with  such 
circumspection^  and  with  strokes  so  light  and  so 
ill -directed  as  that  they  themselves  cannot  per 
ceive  them  :  our  great  concern  is  not,  to  correct, 
but  not  to  irritate  them  :  it  would  seem  that  our 
ministry  in  their  regard,  had  merely  for  object  to 
treat  them  with  caution,,  and  not  to  convert  them  ; 
to  announce  to  them,  the  word  of  salvation  in 
such  sort,  that  they  may  find  in  it,   nothing,  that 
should  concern  or  interest  them.     We  persuade 
ourselves  that   we  ought  not,  by  an   indiscreet 
zeal   to  deprive  the  church  of  a  credit  and  sup 
port  that  may  be  useful  to  her;  as  if  the  church 
could  not  uphold  herself  without  the  aid  of  the 
arm  of  flesh ;  as  if  men  plunged  in  excesses^  the 


23  i  ON   THE   ZEAL    OF   PASTORS 

slaves  of  intemperance.,  could  be  useful  in  the 
work  of  God  :  as  if  it  were  at  present  necessary 
to  flatter  the  great,  to  maintain  that  religion, 
which  had  established  itself  only  in  combating 
their  passions  and  their  vices;  as  if,  in  fine,  it 
were  an  indiscretion  and  a  crime,  not  to  be  flat 
terers  and  prevaricators  in  the  discharge  of  our 
ministry. 

No,  my  brethren,  let  us  not  be  solicitous  to 
gain  for  religion,  the  support  of  flesh  and  blood: 
we  may  combine  fidelity  to  our  ministry,  with 
the  respect  and  attention  due  to  greatness  :  what 
we  owe  to  the  love  of  truth  is  not  incompatible 
with  the  observance  of  the  rules  of  Christian 
prudence.  Religion  authorizes  not  the  excesses, 
nor  the  indiscretions  of  zeal :  she  condemns  only 
human  respect  and  the  degenerate  and  interested 
views  of  self-love.  Let  us  respect  the  great  and 
the  powerful,  but  let  us  not  respect  their  immo 
ralities  and  their  scandals :  let  us  render  to  them 
the  love,  the  homage,  and  the  tribute  which  we 
owe  them,  but  let  us  not  be  equally  complaisant 
to  their  vices  :  let  us  exhibit  to  the  flock  a  model 
of  submission  and  of  fidelity  to  them,  but  let  us 
not  scandalize  our  people,  by  the  example  of  a 
base  and  shameful  adulation.  The  children  of 
Ihe  world  are  sufficiently  studious  of  corrupting 


AGAINST   SCANDALS,  235 

them  by  the  poison  of  unceasing-  and  unmerited 
praises ;  let  not  us  too,  prostitute  our  ministry 
to  so  unworthy  and  so  criminal  a  purpose,  but 
let  us  rather  preserve  for  them,  at  least  in  our 
wise  and  commendable  sincerity,  a  resource  by 
which  they  may  arrive  at  the  knowledge,  and 
comprehend  the  value,  of  truth.  If  our  situa 
tions  put  it  in  our  power  to  instruct  them,  let  us 
not  be  guided  by  the  consideration  of  what  they 
may  contribute  to  our  fortune,  but  of  what  we 
owe  to  their  salvation.  The  only  means  of  being 
truly  useful  to  them,  is,  not  to  wish  to  render 
them  useful  to  us :  from  the  moment  in  which 
we  design  to  profit  of  their  favor,  we  must  begin 
by  sparing  and  indulging  their  weaknesses  ;  it  is 
but  rarely,  that  their  graces  are  not  the  price 
and  the  reward  of  our  condescensions  and  com 
pliances.  Let  us  tremble  when  they  heap  their 
favors  on  us;  the  more  they  raise  us,  the  more 
we  should  fear  that  we  may  have  degraded  our 
selves  :  their  gifts  always  cost  us  dearly,  since 
they  are  seldom  to  be  purchased  except  at  the 
expense  of  truth,  and  by  the  sacrifice  of  the 
dignity  of  our  ministry.  It  is  not  that  the  great 
are  inaccessible  to  truth  :  the  more  unaccustomed 
they  are  to  its  beauty,  the  more  would  they  be 
disposed  to  respect  and  venerate  it:  they  perish, 


236  ON    THE   ZEAL    OF   PASTORS 

for  the  most  part,  because  there  is  no  one  near 
who  has  the  courage  to  point  out  the  danger,,  or 
to  stretch  forth  a  hand  to  prevent  them  from  (all- 
ing  into  the  precipice:  it  is  not  that  they  want 
the  principles  of  religion  or  the  fear  of  God,  but 
they  want  ministers,  who  would  dare  to  employ 
them,  to  correct  their  passions,  and  we  should 
still  see  Theodosiuses  among  the  faithful,  were 
the  bounty  of  God,  still  to  raise  up  in  his* 
church,  pastors  of  the  zeal  and  the  intrepidity 
of  Ambrose. 

It  is  then  human  respect  that  extinguishes 
in  us  sacerdotal  "zeal,  and  the  love  of  truth. 
To  this  cause  of  the  want  of  zeal,  may  be  added 
another  equally  common,  but  which  1  sincerely 
hope  does  not  regard  those  who  now  hear  me  : 
I  mean  irregularity  of  morals. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  a  Priest  whose  soul 
is  stained  by  a  thousand  criminal  passions,  finds 
himself  without  strength,  without  impulse,  and 
without  courage,  when  it  becomes  necessary  to 
reprehend  and  correct  similar  disorders  in  others. 
What  impression  can  be  made  upon  our  zeal 
or  our  honor,  by  the  sight  of  crimes  which  we 
love  and  cherish  in  ourselves  ?  Were  we  ca 
pable  of  being  moved  by  the  view  of  them  in 
our  brethren,  we  should  begin  by  feeling  and 


AGAINST   SCANDALS. 

deploring1  our  own  misery.  Familiarized  as  we 
are,,  to  iniquity,  it  becomes  in  others,  an  object 
calculated  more  to  corrupt  us.,  than  to  make  us 
sorrowful,,  fitter  to  awaken  our  passions  than 
to  stimulate  our  zeal.  The  public  scandals 
which  we  daily  witness  are  for  us.,  become  so 
many  motives  of  impenitence,  justifying  in  our 
eyeAs,  our  own  secret  transgression s,  and  thus 
what  should  pierce  our  hearts  with  the  most  live 
ly  grief,  cairns  and  encourages  us,  and  entirely 
extinguishes  in  our  bosoms  every  sentiment  of 
religion  and  of  repentance.  So,  if  our  situation 
obliges  us,  in  this  state,  to  announce  to  the  faith 
ful,  the  truths  of  salvation,  and  stand  forward 
against  public  disorders ;  what  indifference ! 
what  coldness!  how  constrained  and  disconcert 
ed  is  our  whole  appearance.  No,  my  brethren, 
our  morals  should  not  bring  a  blush  over  the 
reproaches  which  we  make  to  others  :  a  zeal 
that  is  belied  by  our  guilty  conduct,  is  but  a 
theatrical  exhibition,  in  which  there  is  nothing 
truly  serious,  but  the  abuse  of  our  ministry  and 
the  scandal  which  results  from  it  to  the  church. 
Not  only  do  you  debase  the  word  of  God  in 
your  own  mouth,  but  you  render  the  zeal  of 
the  holy  ministers  who  announce  it,  suspected 
and  unproductive.  The  world  which  sees  in 


238  ON   THE   ZEAL   OF  PASTORS 

them,  the  same  zeal  which  you  exhibit,  sus 
pects  also  the  same  vices :  it  persuades  itself 
that  zeal  is  but  an  idle  and  ostentatious  art ;  and 
to  justify  to  itself,  its  errors  and  its  crimes,  it 
has  no  reason,  more  specious  or  more  forcible, 
than  the  lives  of  those  who  condemn  them :  this 
is  the  eternal  burden  of  the  libertine's  song  : 
it  is  the  impious  language  which  gives  point 
and  wit  to  the  daring  satires  and  the  licentious 
verses  that  are  continually  poured  upon  the 
public.  A  Priest  whose  morals  discredit  the 
truths  which  he  announces,  makes  more  unbe 
lievers  and  libertines  than  all  the  detestable  wri 
tings  which  infidelity  has  produced  and  circulated 
in  darkness,  and  he  tarnishes  religion  by  a  stain 
which  the  piety  and  the  zeal  of  so  many  holy 
pastors  is  no  longer  able  to  efface.  Zeal  then 
against  vice,  is  seemly  and  useful  to  the  church, 
only  in  the  mouth  of  virtue.  Supposing  even 
that  our  miseries  are  not  known  to  the  faith 
ful,  that  our  caution  in  guilt  has  saved  them 
from  the  scandal  of  our  disorders  ;  yet  what 
words,  can  a  heart  that  is  double,  corrupted  and 
sunk  in  the  most  shameful  and  abandoned  plea 
sures,  furnish  to  recommend  modesty  and  truth  / 
to  exalt  the  sanctity,  and  enforce  the  severity,  of 
the  law  ?  what  grace  can  you  have,  says  the 


AGAINST   SCANDALS.  239 

Apostle,,*  to  thunder  against  the  adulterers,  the 
fornicators  and  the  sacrilegious,  if  your  denun 
ciations  against  them,,  be  strongly  applicable  to 
yourself?  will  not  the  secret  shame  alone,  of 
your  condition,  the  contradiction  between  your 
conduct  and  your  language,  the  false  personage 
which  you  are  compelled  to  sustain,  dry  up  the 
words  in  your  very  heart;  and  how  will  you 
be  able  to  support  so  sad  and  so  reproachful 
a  ministry?  evert  though  you  should  carry  ar 
tifice  and  dissimulation  so  far  as  to  counterfeit 
the  exterior  of  zeal,  what  fruit  could  accrue  from 
it,  to  your  brethren?  it  is  in  vain  that  we  mask 
our  disorders  ;  through  the  appearances  of  piety, 
something  unaccountably  forced  and  singular 
breaks  forth,  which  cannot  flow  from  a  pure 
source:  it  is  in  vain  that  the  voice  strikes  the 
ear,  the  secret  unction  is  wanting,  and  nothing 
reaches  the  heart :  we  cry  aloud,  we  become 
warmed  and  impassioned;  but  we  alone  are 
heated,  the  auditory  is  cold  as  death :  it  is  the 
heart  alone,  that  can  effectually  speak  to  the 
heart:  we  may  indeed  counterfeit  the  language, 
and  the  vehemence,  of  zeal ;  but  true  zeal  alone 
can  faithfully  represent  itself. 

Besides,  loaded  as  you  are  with  the  diune  ma 
lediction,  how  can  you  draw  down  the  blessings 

*  Romans,  c.  2. 


240 


ON   THE    ZEAL    OF    PASTORS 


of  heaven  on  your  ministry?  can  you  be  in  the 
hands  of  God,  an  instrument  of  life  and  salva 
tion  to  your  brethren,  you  who  like  another  La 
zarus,,  abide,  as  a  putrifying  carcass,  in  all  the 
horror  and  infection  of  death  ?  will  the  Holy 
Ghost  speak  by  a  mouth,  a  thousand  times  de 
filed  by  the  language  of  passion,  of  indecency, 
and  of  guilt?  will  he  operate  the  wTork  of  justice 
and  sanctification,  by  a  worker  of  iniquity  and 
of  hypocrisy  ?  will  he  attach  his  graces  and  his 
benefits  to  functions  which  insult  him,  and 
which  are  a  crime  and  an  abomination  in  his 
sight?  will  he  make  use  of  a  ministry  of  sacri 
lege  and  of  reprobation,  to  form  to  himself,  saints 
and  elect? 

But,  my  brethren,  how  is  it  possible  that  a 
state  of  guilt,  and  of  disorder,  should  not  ren 
der  a  pastor  incapable  of  zeal,  and  of  any  suc 
cess  in  the  exercise  of  his  functions,  since  te 
pidity  alone,  in  those,  whose  morals  are  other 
wise  regular,  is  an  invincible  obstacle:  and  this 
is  a  new  cause  of  the  want  of  zeal. 

Yes,  my  brethren,  it  is  not  the  state  of  fright 
ful  disorder  that  you  have  most  to  dread;  that 
regards  but  a  small  number  of  souls  given  over 
to  a  reprobate  sense,  in  whom  every  principle  of 
piety  and  of  the  fear  of  God,  seems  utterly  extin- 


AGAINST    SCANDALS. 

guislied;  nor  does  God  permit  those  horrors 
and  scandals  to  be  multiplied  in  his  church. 
But  an  evil  against  which  you  should  be  much 
more  on  your  guard,  is  that  state  of  tepidity  and 
of  negligence  in  the  discharge  of  your  duties,, 
which  destroys  their  entire  fruit.  And  in  effect, 
how  can  you,  in  the  course  of  your  office,,  show 
yourselves  to  the  people,  animated  with  that 
divine  fire  which  bears  sparks  of  grace  even  in 
to  the  most  cold  and  insensible  hearts,  you  who 
appear  lifeless  and  frozen  in  the  very  exercise  of 
your  duties,  and  who  feel  no  quickening  and 
generous  ardor  for  the  salvation  of  your  bre 
thren,  nor  for  your  own  ?  If  you  discharge 
your  ministry  with  an  air  of  habit,  of  irksome- 
ness  and  of  repugnance  inseparabje  from  a  te 
pid  and  unfaithful  life,  the  same  dispositions, 
will  be  found  in  those  who  hear  you  :  your 
functions  will  awaken  neither  piety  nor  faith  in 
yourself,  and  will  leave  them  slumbering,  in 
your  audience.  Alas!  in  a  holy  and  fervent  pas 
tor,  prodigies  of  zeal,  of  industry,  of  patience 
and  of  labor  are  necessary,  to  combat  the  obsta 
cles,  which  the  world,  the  devil  and  the  pre 
sent  corruption  of  morals,  oppose  to  the  suc 
cess  of  his  ministry,  and  often  in  spite  of  all 
the  ardor  of  his  zeal,  and  all  the  toil  of  inces- 

R 


24:2  ON    THE    ZEAL    OF    PASTORS 

sant  cares,  he  has  the  affliction  of  feeing  them 
produce  nothing-,  And  you,  unworthy  and  care 
less  labourer,  what  can  you  promise  yourself 
from  your  degeneracy  and  your  idleness?  what 
fruit  can  you  expect  to  gather  from  a  field,  in 
the  cultivation  of  which,  your  hands  are  feeble 
and  languid,  and  which  seems  to  have  been  in 
trusted  to  you,  not  that  it  might  be  the  object 
of  your  labors  and  of  your  solicitude,  but  that 
it  might  serve  rather  as  a  place  of  repose  for 
your  sluggishness. 

If  a  simple  Christian  who  lives  in  a  state  of 
tepidity,  be  unfit  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven, 
and  be  rejected  from  the  mouth  of  God,  as  a 
lukewarm  and  nauseous  draught,  what  ought 
\\c  to  think  of  a  Priest  who  does  the  work  of 
God  negligently?  what  an  object  of  disgust  to 
a  God,  ever  jealous  of  his  gifts  !  what  an  af 
flicting  spectacle  to  the  church,  which  thus  sees, 
an  office  demanding  zeal  and  labor  for  the  sal 
vation  of  her  children,  filled  by  a  tepid  and  idle 
minister,  instead  of  an  active  and  faithful  pastor, 
who  would  have  given  her  glory  and  consola 
tion,  by  adding  to  the  kingdom  of  Christ,  by 
edifying  the  just,  and  by  turning  a  multitude  of 
sinners  from  the  evil  of  their  ways,  to  the  love 
of  justice  and  the  practice  of  penance!  A  tepid 


AGAINST   SCANDALS.  243 

and  inactive  life,,  is  then  one  of  the  most  ordi* 
nary  causes  of  the  want  of  zeal. 

It  is  true,  that  it  is,  oftentimes,  a  tender  and 
timid  piety  itself,  that  withholds  us  from  the  ex 
ercise  of  our  functions,  and  this  is  the  last  cause 
of  the  want  of  zeal. 

Yes,  my  brethren,  we,  every  day,  see  indivi 
duals  among  the  clergy,  who  are  rendered  use 
less  to  the  church,  by  an  extravagant  love  of  re- 
tiremev.L,  by  a  mistaken  delicacy  of  conscience, 
by  an  ill-directed  sentiment  of  their  own  un- 
worthiness,  and  by  an  ill-applied  idea  of  the  ho 
liness  and  sublimity  of  their  duties.  They  pre 
fer  the  leisure  and  the  tranquillity  of  solitude, 
of  prayer  and  of  study,  to  the  labors  and  the 
agitations  of  the  ministry;  they  dread  the  perils 
of  dissipation,  and  they  are  insensible  to  the 
dangers  of  an  inactive  and  useless  life  ;  they 
persuade  themselves  that  it  is  sufficient  for  a 
Priest  to  edify  the  church  by  his  conduct  and 
his  example,  without  assisting  her  by  his  toils ; 
to  be  without  reproach  in  the  eyes  of  men,  with 
out  contributing  to  their  eternal  welfare ;  in  a 
word,  they  think  that  in  labouring  for  their  own 
salvation,  they  acquire  the  r'ght  of  neglecting 
the  salvation  of  their  brethren.  They  give 
themselves  up  to  a  taste  for  idleness,  because 


244  ON    THE    ZEAL   OF    PASTORS 

repose  offers  only  the  pious  ideas  of  retire 
ment,  of  fear,  of  flight  from  the  world  and  its 
dangers.  They  are  estranged  from  the  practice 
of  their  duties,  by  the  very  motives  which  ought 
to  engage  them  to  yield  to  the  impulse  of  the 
spirit  of  God,  and  enter  courageously  on  the  la 
bors  of  their  vocation;  the  sentiments  of  faith 
and  of  piety,  which  alone  can  render  them  wor 
thy  of  their  ministry,  prevent  the  exercise  of  its 
functions  ;  and  because  they  might  discharge 
them  with  honor  and  with  advantage,  they  fancy 
themselves  authorized  to  abandon  them.  But 
how  can  they,  says  Saint  Gregory,  prefer  the 
sweets  and  the  security  of  retirement  and  re 
pose,  to  the  interests  and  the  salvation  of  their 
brethren,  since  the  only  Son  of  God,  himself, 
came  forth  from  the  bosom  of  his  eternal  repose, 
to  render  himself  useful  to  men,  by  bearing 
to  them  truth  and  salvation  and  life  !  Qua  cnim 
mente  is  qui  proximis  profuturus  enitesceret,  uti- 
litati  cceterorum  sccrelum  prceponit  suum,  quart- 
do  ipse  summus  Fatris  unigcnitus  ut  mulli* 
prodesset,  de  sinu  Fatris  egrcssus  est  ad  pub- 
licutn  nostrum  ?* 


*  Saint  Gregory.  Past.  p.  1.  c.  1 


AGAINST    SCANDALS.  245 

You  fear  the  dissipation  and  the  dangers  in 
evitable  in  the  discharge  of  public  functions  ; 
but  it  is  this  fear  itself  that  will  support  you  ; 
they  are  to  be  discharged  with  success  and  se 
curity,  only  in  proportion  as  they  are  discharged 
with  fear  and  solicitude.  You  deem  yourselves 
unworthy  of  a  ministry  so  holy  and  so  sublime  ; 
but  it  is  this  very  sentiment  that  will  render 
you  worthy  of  it ;  we  cannot  exercise  it  in  a 
manner  worthy  of  God,  but  when  we  acknow 
ledge  our  own  infirmity  and  unworthiness.  You 
feel  a  greater  taste  for  study  and  retirement  ; 
but  whether  is  it  taste  or  duty  that  ought  to  de 
cide  on  your  obligations?  have  you  become  a 
public  minister,  that  you  might  live  only  for 
yourself?  The  love  of  retirement  will  ensure 
the  success  of  our  duties,  and  we  ought  to  be 
interdicted,  were  we  led  to  undertake  and  em 
brace  them,  merely  by  a  leaning  towards  the 
world  and  its  dissipations.  But  you  are  con 
scious  that  you  possess  no  talents  ;  you  are  per 
suaded  that  you  could  be  of  no  service  to  your 
brethren,  and  thus  you  think  that  you  should 
leave  the  duties  of  the  priesthood  to  pastors 
more  learned,  more  holy,  and  more  capable  of 
producing  fruit.  You  are  persuaded  that  you 
could  be  of  no  service  to  your  brethren?  but  H 


246  ON    THE   ZEAL    OF   PASTORS 

it  is  this  very  persuasion  that  will  draw  down  a 
new  blessing  on  your  labors  :  God  is  jealous  of 
the  work  of  the  sanctification  of  souls  ;  he  can 
not  endure  that  man  should  ascribe  it  to  him 
self,  and  we  become  faithful  ministers,  and  fit  to 
be  co-operators  in  the  designs  of  his  mercy  to 
wards  the  people,  only  in  as  much  as  we  shall 
esteem  ourselves  unprofitable  servants.  Finally, 
you  perceive  in  yourself  no  talent  for  the  func 
tions  of  the  ministry  :  but  the  ardent  desire  of 
the  salvation  of  souls,  is  itself  a  great  talent  : 
a  heart  that  is  penetrated  and  inflamed  with  this 
holy  desire,  is  always  successful;  it  compensates 
for  all  other  talents  ;  what  do  I  say?  it  forms 
them  in  us  ;  whereas  without  this  tender  charity 
and  this  priestly  zeal,  however  brilliant  may  be 
the  talents  we  possess,  we  are  but  as  the  sound 
ing  brass  and  tinkling  cymbal.  We  have  all 
the  talents  necessary  to  render  us  serviceable  to 
our  brethren,  when  we  have  a  sincere  love,  and 
an  ardent  desire,  of  their  salvation ;  this  is  the 
treasure  of  which  Christ  speaks,  and  from  which 
the  Scribe  instructed  the  kingdom  of  heaven, 
draws  all  his  talents  and  all  his  riches,  ancient 
and  new.  Place  yourself  in  the  hands  of  those 
who  govern  the  church;  they  will  know  how 
to  employ  you,  according  to  the  strength  of 


AGAINST    SCANDALS.  247 

your  talents  and  the  extent  of  your  acquire 
ments  :  it  is  to  them,,  not  to  you  that  it  apper 
tains,  to  judge  of  your  capacity  :  there  are  in 
the  church  so  many  offices,  that  they  will  easily 
find  one  suited  to  your  powers  ;  and  though 
nature  may  seem  to  have  refused  to  you,  the 
qualifications  requisite  for  the  right  discharge 
of  your  duties,  still  the  grace  which  you  will 
receive  from  their  appointment,  will  supply  you 
with  whatever  may  be  necessary  to  ensure  the 
success  of  your  ministry. 

Remember  then,  my  brethren,  that  you  can 
not  be  too  distrustful  of  those  paths  which  turn 
you  aside  from  the  common  track ;  whatever 
advantage  or  security  they  may  appear  to  offer, 
they  lead  you  astray,  when  the.  duties  of  your 
state  call  you  in  a  different  direction.  The  soli 
tary  would  be  ruined  in  the  world,  where  neither 
the  obligations  of  his  profession,  nor  the  will  of 
God  requires  his  presence.  The  Priest  would 
perish  in  the  inactivity  of  repose  and  retreat, 
which  the  duties  of  his  ministry,  and  the  wants 
of  the  church,  cannot  permit  him  to  enjoy.  No 
thing,  says  Saint  John  Chry&ostom,  is  more 
opposed  to  the  spirit  of  that  priesthood  to  which 
the  church  has  associated  us,  than  a  retired  and 
tranquil  life,  which  is  often  inconsiderately  look- 


ON  THE    ZEAL    OF    PASTORS 

ed  upon,  as  a  more  sublime  and  perfect  state  : 
Nihil  enirn  minus  aptum  est  ad  Ecclesia  proefcc- 
turam,  quam  secordia  et  ignavia,  quam  alii  cxer- 
citationem  quamdam  admirabilem  putant*  No, 
my  brethren,  there  is  no  security  for  us,  but  in 
complying  with  what  God  demands  of  us  :  piety 
is  not  the  mortal  work  of  taste  and  caprice,  but 
the  divine  fruit  of  order  and  of  rule  :  diffidence 
in  ourselves  is  a  virtue,  when  it  renders  us  more 
attentive  and  exact  in  the  exercise  of  our  func 
tions  ;    it   is    a   vice   and   an    illusion    when    it 
alienates  us  from  the  discharge  of  our  duties  :  to 
prefer  a  kind  of  life  of  our  own   choosing,  to 
that  which  established  order  points  out  and  pre 
scribes,  is  not  humility  but  presumption  :   it  is 
to  be  guilty  of  the  vanity  of  wishing  to  be  our 
own  guides,  and  of  respecting  more  our  own 
discretion  and  judgment,  than  the  regular  and 
express  authority  of   the  church.      Pride   ever 
seeks  to  be  singular  :    true  humility  loves  the 
common  way,  because  nothing  is  so  mortifying 
to  pride,  as  to  be  confounded  with  the  crowd  of 
our  brethren. 

Let  us   in   conclusion,  again   briefly   call  to 
mind  all  the  various  causes  of  the  want  of  zeal 

St.  John  Chrysostom.  de  Sacerd.  Lib.  6. 


AGAINST    SCANDALS. 


249 


among  the  clergy ;  they  cannot  he  too  often 
placed  before  your  eyes :  from  these  poisonous 
sources  flow  all  the  evils  of  the  church, — the 
contempt  of  holy  things,  the  degradation  and 
disgrace  of  the  ministry,  the  decay  and  the  cor 
ruption  of  the  morals  of  the  faithful.  They  are; 
first,  a  state  of  comfort  and  abundance,  as  if 
poverty  alone,  and  not  charity,  ought  to  provide 
pastors,  to  glorify  God  and  sanctify  his  people. 
Secondly  the  want  of  the  love  of  God  ;  it  must 
indeed  be  extinguished  in  our  hearts,  when  we 
remain  unmoved  and  insensible  at  the  sight  of 
those  disorders,  which  every  day,  insult  him  in 
our  very  presence.  Thirdly,  the  want  of  cha 
rity  towards  our  brethren  ;  can  we  pretend  to 
love  them,  and  yet  see  them  perishing,  whilst 
their  eternal  ruin,  awakens  not  in  our  breast, 
the  slightest  desire  to  assist  them !  Fourthly,  a 
human  respect  which  makes  us  seek  the  esteem 
and  the  friendship  of  men,  at  the  expense  of 
religion  and  of  truth  ;  a  baseness  which  binds  up 
our  tongue,  and  induces  us  to  prefer  our  own 
glory  and  our  own  interests  to  the  glory  of  the 
church,  and  the  interests  of  Jesus  Christ :  con- 
rage,  disinterestedness,  a  holy  generosity,  a  wise 
and  heroic  firmness,  are  the  first  effects  of  the 
grace  of  the  priesthood,  and  if  those  sentiments 


250  ON   THE   ZEAL   OF   PASTORS 

are  effaced  from  our  hearts,  the  grace  of  our 
vocation  is  entirely  extinct.  Fifthly,  an  irregular 
and  vicious  life ;  what  zeal  can  a  Priest  feel 
against  the  vices  of  his  brethren,  who  is  rendered 
insensible  by  the  guilt  and  the  enormity  of  his 
own  crimes  I  Sixthly,  a  tepid  and  faithless  life  ; 
zeal  is  a  holy  fervor  whose  first  impulse  and  first 
attention  are  directed  towards  ourselves :  he  who 
pardons  almost  every  thing  in  himself,  can  but 
feebly  reprove  the  transgressions  of  his  brethren. 
Finally,  a  timid  and  false  piety :  we  decline, 
through  a  pious  illusion,  the  functions  of  the 
holy  ministry ;  we  make  of  our  piety  a  pretext 
to  dispense  us  from  the  rules  of  piety  itself;  we 
fear  that  we  ourselves  shall  be  lost,  and  we  do 
not  fear  to  render  ourselves  guilty  of  the  de 
struction  of  our  brethren :  we  fly  from  those 
perils  to  which  the  order  of  God  and  the  vocation 
of  the  church  has  called  us,  and  flight  becomes 
for  us  the  only  peril,  which  we  do  not  know, 
and  which  we  ought  most  to  dread. 

Destroy,  O  my  God !  in  the  hearts  of  thy 
ministers,  every  obstacle  which  the  world  and 
the  flesh  oppose,  without  ceasing,  to  that  zeal 
which  should  render  us,  the  instruments  of  thy 
mercies  towards  thy  people  :  inflame  them  with 
that  spirit  of  fire  and  of  wisdom  which  thou 


AGAINST   SCANDALS. 

didst  pour  on  thy  first  disciples.  May  the  suc 
cession  of  Apostolic  zeal  be  transmitted  from 
age  to  age,  in  thy  church,  together  with  the 
succession  of  faith  and  of  sacred  doctrine.  Do 
thou  thyself  form  in  thy  vineyard,  labourers 
powerful  in  word  and  in  work,  whom  the  world 
cannot  intimidate ;  whom  the  powers  of  the 
earth  cannot  shake  ;  whom  no  human  considera 
tions  can  affect ;  whose  thoughts  and  actions  will 
be  guided  only  by  the  desire  of  thy  glory  and  of 
the  salvation  of  their  brethren  ;  and  who  shall 
count  the  suffrages  of  men  as  nothing,  except, 
in  as  much,  as  they  may  contribute  to  bless  and 
glorify  thy  holy  name  for  ever.  Amen. 


A  DISCOURSE 


ON     THE 


VOCATION  TO  THE  ECCLESIASTICAL 
STATE. 


Sicut  misit  me  Pater,  et  ego  mitto  vos. 
As  the  Father  hath  sent  me,  I  also  send  you. 

JOHN.  chap.  xx.  ver.  21. 


THESE  are  the  words  of  Jesus  Christ,  appear 
ing  after  his  resurrection,,  to  the  assembly  of  his 
disciples,  when  he  came  to  console  their  faith 
by  his  presence,  and  to  calm  their  fears  by  the 
peace  which  he  announces,  and  which  he  be 
queaths  to  them,  as  the  sweetest  fruit  of  his 
victory,  and  the  dearest  pledge  of  his  remem 
brance. 

He  did  not  think  it  enough  to  say  to  them,,  in 
establishing  them  the  ministers  of  his  gospel, 


ON   THE   VOCATION,    &C.  253 

go,  behold  I  send  you,  teach  all  nations,  and 
baptize  them  in  my  name.  It  was  necessary  to 
raise  their  spirits,  as  yet  cast  down,  and  con 
founded  by  the  scandal  of  his  passion,  by  in 
spiring*  them  with  exalted  sentiments  of  the  sub 
lime  office  in  which  he  was  about  to  engage 
them.  And  he  therefore  gives  them  the  most 
lofty  and  divine  idea  of  their  vocation,  by  com 
paring  their  mission  to  his  own,  and  by  assimi 
lating  his  departure  from  the  bosom  of  his  eter 
nal  Father  to  come  into  the  world,  to  their  se 
paration  from  his  person,  to  bear  his  name  and 
his  gospel  to  the  extremities  of  the  earth :  Sicut 
misit  me  Pater,  et  ego  mitto  vos. 

In  effect,  it  is  as  if  he  were  to  say  to  them  : 
as  I  have  been  on  earth,  the  envoy  of  my  Fa 
ther,  so  you  shall  be  my  envoys  among  men  :  as 
the  Father  was  in  me  reconciling  the  world  to 
himself,  so  shall  I  be  in  you,  myself  exercising 
a  ministry  of  reconciliation  :  as  those  who  have 
seen  me,  have  seen  my  Father,  so  those  who 
shall  see  you  shall  see  me  also,  and  you  shall  be 
on  earth,  the  image  of  my  person  and  the  most 
lively  representation  of  my  power  and  authority: 
as  it  was  the  Father,  who  abiding  in  me,  ope 
rated  all  my  works,  so  it  is  I  who  abiding  ia 
you  shall  operate  all  yours,  shall  baptize,  shall 


254  ON   THE  VOCATION  TO 

give  the  Holy  Ghost,  shall  speak  before  (he 
kings  and  the  princes  of  the  world:  as  the  Fa 
ther  had  chosen  me  before  the  beginning  of 
ages,  and  as  all  the  designs  of  his  mercy  to 
wards  men  were  referred  to  me,  so  I  have  cho 
sen  you  from  the  beginning  of  the  world,  and 
all  my  eternal  designs  towards  my  church  are 
directed  only  to  you  :  as  the  Father  hath  given 
me  all  power,  so  I  also  give  you  the  keys  of 
life  and  of  death,  of  heaven  and  of  hell,  and  be 
queath  to  you  a  power  which  will  even  appear 
to  excel  my  own.  The  Father  hath  caused  me 
to  sit  on  his  right  hand  and  given  me  all  my 
enemies  as  a  footstool ;  I  will  place  you  on 
twelve  thrones,  judging  the  tribes  of  Israel  : 
the  Father  appearing  in  a  splendid  cloud,  has 
borne  testimony  to  me  from  heaven,  and  I  shall, 
one  day,  appear,  seated  on  a  cloud  of  glory,  and 
attended  by  all  the  angels  of  heaven,  to  bear 
testimony  to  you,  before  the  assembled  nations 
of  the  earth.  In  fine,  as  I  have  glorified  my 
Father  in  the  world,  so  you  shall  glorify  me, 
shall  confess  my  name  and  bear  it  through  the 
universe  till  the  consummation  of  ages :  and 
as  the  mission  which  I  have  received  from  my 
Father  has  been  the  principle  and  the  founda 
tion  of  all  my  authority,  and  of  all  my  greatness, 


THE   ECCLESIASTICAL   STATE.  255 

so  the  mission  which  you  this  day  receive  from 
me,  shall  be  the  only  foundation  of  all  your 
power  and  of  all  your  elevation  :  Sicut  misit 
me  Pater.,  et  ego  mitto  vos.  To  this  last  re 
flection  I  shall  confine  the  instruction  which 
you  ought  to  draw  from  a  parallel  so  magnifi 
cent  and  so  august,,  and  which  conveys,  at  the 
same  time,  the  most  sublime  and  terrific  ideas  of 
our  ministry. 

The  more  exalted  are  the  functions  to  which 
we  are  called,  the  more  necessary  is  it  for  us 
to  receive  a  regular  mission  to  exercise  them. 
Let  no  man,  says  Saint  Paul,  rashly  dare  to 
usurp  this  honor,  unless  he  be  called  by  God,  as 
was  Aaron :  Nee  quisquam  sumit  sibi  honor  em, 
sed  qui  vocatur  a  Deo,  tanquam  Aaron*  If  it 
was  necessary  that  Christ  himself,  to  begin  the 
work  of  man's  salvation,  should  have  been  sent 
by  his  Father,  surely  it  must  be  far  more  neces 
sary,  that  we,  in  order  to  continue  it,  should 
have  been  sent  by  Christ :  and  as  we  are  called 
to  the  same  ministry,  it  is  requisite  that  our 
vocation  have  the  same  marks  which  charac 
terized  his  mission.  Now  what  are  the  essen 
tial  marks  of  the  mission  of  Jesus  Christ:  that 

*  Hebrews,  c.  5. 


250  ON    THE    VOCATION    TO 

is  to  say,  those  to  which  he  appeals  to  prove 
to  the  Jews,  that  he  was  sent  by  his  Father  ? 
To  explain  them  I  have  only  to  confine  my 
self  strictly  to  the  words  of  my  text :  I  shall 
present  to  you  the  rule,  of  which  each  one  of 
you  will  make  the  application  to  himself.  Were 
Jesus  Christ  to  appear,  this  day,,  in  the  midst 
of  you,  could  he  say  to  each  one  in  particular, 
as  he  once  said  to  his  disciples,  as  my  Father 
hath  sent  me,  I  also  send  you  :  Slcut  inisit  me 
Pater,  ct  ego  mitto  vos?  This  is  what  we  have 
now  to  examine. 

But  before  entering  into  the  subject,  I  sup 
pose,  that  the  vocation  of  heaven  is  necessary  in 
the  choice  which  we  make  of  a  state  of  life, 
nor  is  it  my  design  to  establish  here,  this  ge 
neral  and  capital  truth,  on  which  you  have  been 
already  instructed.  You  know  that  our  lot, 
forming  as  it  does,  a  part  of  the  general  system 
of  the  universe,  and  holding  as  it  were,  by  an 
infinite  number  of  secret  relations  to  every  ob 
ject  by  which  we  are  surrounded,  we  can  no 
more  dispose  of  it,  than  we  can  dipose  of  the 
universal  harmony  and  government  of  the  visi 
ble  world  ;  that  the  choice  of  a  state  of  life  be 
ing  appointed  as  the  principal  means  of  our 
justification,  it  can  no  more  be  the  work  of  man 


THE    ECCLESIASTICAL    STATE.  257 

alone,  than  his  justification  itself;  and  in  fine, 
that  although  man  has  indeed  been  left  to  the 
guidance  of  his  own  counsel,  yet  his  destiny 
shall  for  ever  remain  in  the  hands  of  God. 

But  even  although  the  Lord  were  to  leave  to 
the  caprice  of  men,  the  choice  of  every  other 
profession  :  even  although  by  a  supposition  fool 
ish  and  injurious  to  the  providence  and  the  wis 
dom  of  the  universal  Sovereign,  chance  were 

O     J 

to  preside  over  that  variety  of  conditions  into 
which  mankind  is  divided  to  minister  to  the  va 
rious  necessities  of  society ;  even  although.,  like 
some  impious  philosophers,  we  should  figure  to 
ourselves,  an  indolent  Deity,  who  having  drawn 
the  world  out  of  nothing,  should  retire  within 
himself,  leave  to  chance  the  guidance  of  his 
work,  regard  the  detail  of  its  conduct  either  as 
an  amusement  unworthy  of  his  greatness,  or  as 
a  care  incompatible  with  his  repose :  still,  says 
Saint  Cyprian,  we  should  reserve  to  him  the 
choice  of  his  ministers,  as  an  affair  that  is  pe 
culiar  and  that  regards  him  alone,  as  it  relates 
to  the  appointment  of  men,  faithful  to  uphold 
his  interests,  agreeable  in  his  sight,  that  they 
may  appear  in  his  presence  with  gifts  and  sacri 
fice?,  zealous  for  the  honor  of  his  altars;  calcu 
lated  to  secure  to  him  the  vows  and  the  homage 

s 


258  ON    THE    VOCATION    TO 

of  the  people  ;  in  a  word,  the  depositaries  of 
his  law,  the  interpreters  of  his  will,  and  charged, 
as  it  were,  with  the  care  of  his  glory  on  earth. 
It  is  then  incontrovertibly  certain  that  the  honor 
of  the  priesthood  should  not  be  the  consequence 
of  the  choice  of  man,  hut  of  the  vocation  of 
God  :  that  no  man  without  sacrilegious  intru 
sion,  can  speak  in  his  name,  who  does  not  speak 
by  his  authority,  can  use  his  power  if  he  has 
not  received  it,  treat  of  the  concerns  of  the 
Lord,  without  his  commission,  and  be  the  man 
of  God,  as  Saint  Paul  speaks,  without  being 
sent  by  God. 

But  my  object  is  not  to  convince  you  of  the 

necessity  of  being  called  to  the  priesthood,  in 

order  to  enter  legitimately  into  so  holy  a  state : 

of  this   truth  you  have  little  doubt;    but  what 

appears  to  me,  most  essential  on  this  important 

subject,   is   to  summon  you    before    your   own 

conscience,  and  make  each  one  ask  himself  the 

question  :   Am  I  called  ?     Is  it  the  vocation  of 

Jesus  Christ,  or  the  voice  of  flesh  and  blood, 

that  has  placed   me  in   the  sanctuary  ?    Is  the 

holy  state  to  which  I  aspire  that  destiny  which 

the  Lord  prepared  for  me  before  the  beginning 

of  the  world  ?   Am  I  in  my  own  place,  or  do  I 

occupy  the  place  of  another?     In  a  word,  has 

Christ  sent  me,  as  his  Father  had  sent  him?   To 


THE   ECCLESIASTICAL   STATE.  259 

clear  up  a  doubt  so  awful  and  so  interesting  to 
our  eternal  salvation,,  we  have  only  to  consider 
what  are  the  marks  of  the  mission  and  of  the 
vocation  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  inquire  at  the 
same  time,  whether  they  are  to  be  found  in 
ours. 

When  Christ  wishes  to  prove  to  the  incredu 
lous  Jews  that  he  was  sent  by  his  Father,  what 
are  the  marks  which  he  gives  them,  of  the  truth 
of  his  mission  ?  In  the  first  place,  the  testimony 
of  his  Father:  it  is  my  Father,,  said  he,  that 
beareth  testimony  to  me :  I  have  yet  a  greater 
testimony  than  the  testimony  of  John.*  In  the 
second  place,  the  testimony  of  the  prophets  who 
had  announced  him,  and  of  the  people  amongst 
whom  he  had  lived  :  read  the  scriptures,  said  he 
to  them,  they  all  speak  of  me:f  interrogate  those 
who  have  heard  and  seen  me,J  they  will  give 
testimony  of  what  I  have  done  in  the  midst  of 
them.  In  the  third  place,  the  testimony  of  his 
own  conscience:  the  Prince  of  this  world  cometh, 
and  in  me  he  hath  not  any  thing.  §  Which  of  you 
shall  convince  me  of  $in?\\  Finally  the  testimony 
of  his  prodigies  and  of  his  works  :  though  you 


John.  c.  v.  ver.  36.  f  Ibid.  c.  v.  ver.  39. 

Ibid.  c.  xviii.  v.  21.         §Ibid.  c.  xiv.  v.  30. 
I!  Ibid,  c,  vu'i,  v.  46. 


ON    THE    VOCATION    TO 

wilt  not  believe  me,  believe  my  works.*  Novr 
as  the  mission  of  Jesus  Christ  is  the  model  of 
ours,,  and  as  he  sends  us  as  the  Father  hath 
sent  him,  it  is  necessary  that  our  call  be  accom 
panied  with  the  same  testimonies  which  proved 
the  truth  of  his  vocation. 

The  testimony  of  his  Father,,  often  given 
from  heaven,,  not  only  in  the  presence  of  his 
disciples  but  even  of  the  Jews,  is  the  first  mark, 
which  Christ  assigns,  of  the  truth  of  his  mis 
sion.  But  you  will  ask,  are  we  thence  to  con 
clude,  that  Christ  should  appear  in  the  sky  to 
bear  testimony  to  us,  before  the  people  ?  No 
certainly,  my  brethren  :  there  never  was  a  man 
except  Saul,  that  vessel  of  election,  destined  to 
found  and  build  up  the  church  of  the  Gentiles, 
who  was  honoured  by  the  descent  of  the  Son  of 
God  from  heaven,  to  call  him  to  the  Apostleship. 
Christ  no  longer  speaks  but  by  the  mouth  of  the 
first  pastors :  to  them  he  leaves  the  choice  of 
his  ministers :  it  is  the  established  order  of  vo 
cation  to  the  ministry,  and  their  testimony  is 
his.  To  them  he  has  intrusted  the  depositc  cf 
the  faith,  and  to  them  he  has  committed  the 
care  of  his  worship,  together  with  the  power 

*  John.  c.  x.  v.3S. 


THE    ECCLESIASTICAL   STATE.  £61 

of  perpetuating  it  on  earth,  by  perpetuating  the 
priesthood  which  is  its  soul,  its  foundation  and 
its  most  essential  function.  The  testimony  then 
of  the  chief  pastors  is  the  first  mark  of  a  canoni 
cal  vocation. 

It  is  true  that  since  the  great  increase  of  the 
flock,  the  principal  pastor  being  no  longer  able 
to  know  all  the  sheep  by  himself,  it  would  be 
difficult  for  him  to  call  individuals  by  name,  to 
associate  them  to  the  sacred  ministry ;  and  he 
has  therefore  been  obliged  to  devolve  upon  others 
the  care  of  examining  and  of  bringing  up  those, 
who  ought  to  be  separated  from  the  multitude, 
and  consecrated  to  the  service  of  the  Lord.  For 
this  purpose,  houses  of  education  and  of  re 
treat  have  been  erected,  where  those  who  are 
destined  for  the  priesthood,  after  being  long 
proved  under  the  eyes  of  experienced  guides, 
receive  from  their  mouth,  the  testimony  which 
determines  the  chief  pastor  to  call  them  to  the 
sacred  functions  of  the  altar,  and  place  on  their 
shoulders  a  portion  of  the  pastoral  solicitude. 

Now  have  you  received  this  testimony  from 
those  who  have  been  placed  over  you,  to  exa 
mine  whether  God  has  called  you  to  his  minis 
try  ?  and  can  you  reckon  amongst  the  marks 
of  your  call^  the  suffrage  of  those  who  have  been 


262  ON    THE    VOCATION    TO 

appointed  the  arbiters  of  your  vocation  ?  Un 
doubtedly  ,  you  will  answer  that  you  are  assured 
of  their  testimony,  and  that  therefore  your  vo 
cation  appears  to  you,  sure.  But  before  you 
rest  satisfied  with  such  security,  let  us  make 
some  reflections  upon  the  subject. 

A  testimony  to  afford  assurance,  supposes  a 
perfect  knowledge  on  the  part  of  those  who 
give  it,  and  on  the  part  of  those  who  receive  it, 
sincerity  and  good  faith,  in  the  disclosure  of 
their  lives  and  conduct.  If  it  is  founded  on  er 
ror,  either  because  you  were  not  known,  or  be 
cause  you  did  not  make  yourself  known,  man 
may  receive,  but  God  rejects,  it.  Now,  I  ask 
you,  ha\e  you  discovered  yourself  entirely  and 
without  any  disguise,  to  those,  to  whom  in  this 
place  of  retreat,  you  have  confided  the  secrets 
of  your  conscience  ?  Have  you  shown  yourself 
with  ut  any  dissimulation  to  the  wise  director 
who,  between  you  and  himself  alone,  must  pro 
nounce  on  the  important  affair  of  your  vocation? 
have  you  introduced  him  into  the  interior  of 
your  heart?  have  you  opened  to  him  the  vo 
lume  of  death  and  the  history  of  your  entire 
life?  I  do  not  ask  you,  if  you  have  lied  to  the 
Holy  Ghost:  God  forbid  that  so  black  a  suspi 
cion  should  escape  my  lips,  or  fall  upon  any 


THE    ECCLESIASTICAL   STATE.  26S 

one  of  those  who  now  hear  me!  But  I  ask  you., 
if  you  have  laid  open  your  passions,  in  their 
sources;  your  relapses,  in  your  irregular  incli 
nations;  and  the  constant  character  of  your 
heart,  in  those  disorders,  which  have  always 
most  prevailed  in  your  morals?  I  ask  you, 
whether,  leaving  your  first  conduct  and  trans 
gressions  in  affected  obscurity,  whether  not 
daring  to  reveal  your  shame,  nor  open  this 
treasure  of  iniquity,  under  pretext  that  these 
sins  have  been  formerly  remitted,  you  have  not 
contented  yourself  with  exposing  the  latter  cir 
cumstances  of  your  life,  and  certain  vague  and. 
general  traits  of  your  early  morals,  in  which 
there  is  nothing  to  characterize  you  in  parti 
cular,  and  by  which  it  is  impossible  to  know 
you  ?  I  ask  you,  whether  you  have  not  imi 
tated  the  Gabaonites  of  old,  who,  to  escape  the 
sword,  and  obtain  a  lot  among  the  people  of 
God,  concealing  their  name  and  their  supersti 
tions,  their  origin,  their  kindred  and  their  mo 
rals,  affected  an  exterior,  modest  and  calculated 
to  excite  compassion,  and  thus  surprised  the 
piety  and  wisdom  of  Joshuah?  if  such  be  the 
case,  have  but  little  confidence  in  a  testimony 
founded  in  a  knowledge  of  you,  that  is  so  un 
certain  and  so  imperfect :  the  consent  of  your 


264  ON   THE   VOCATION    TO 

superiors  is  no  longer  for  you,  a  mark  that  you 
are  called,  it  is  perhaps  the  most  terrible  pu 
nishment  of  your  management  and  insincerity. 
To  the  latest  day  of  your  life,  you  will  feel  this 
burden  on  your  conscience  :  I  have  entered  on 
the  ministry  of  truth,  through  the  paths  of  dis 
simulation  :  I  know  not  whether  I  am  an  in 
truder  or  a  pastor  sent  by  Jesus  Christ:  and 
in  this  anxiety  and  suspense,  the  presumption 
alone  that  is  against  you,  is  neither  slight  nor 
doubtful.  You  have  followed  neither  the  order 
of  God  nor  the  rules  of  the  church  :  when  she 
asks  the  testimony  of  your  superiors,  she  sup 
poses  that  you  have  made  yourself  known  to 
them  :  now  you  have  eluded  this  holy  law  and 
have  called  yourself:  judge  then  if  the  spirit  of 
God,  that  spirit  of  truth  and  sincerity,  could 
have  had  any  share  in  a  vocation,  brought  about 
and  consummated  in  duplicity  and  artifice.  This 
is  the  first  reflection. 

I  ask  you  in  the  second  place,  whether  the 
hope  and  design  of  rendering  your  superiors  fa 
vourable  to  you,  has  not  been  the  spring  and  the 
very  soul  of  all  your  actions,  during  the  time 
allotted  for  your  probation '?  Have  not  your  mo 
desty,  your  exactness,  your  devotions  been  a 
secret  canvass,  so  many  snares  which  you  laid 


THE    ECCLESIASTICAL   STATE.  265 

for  their  piety?  and  can  a  testimony  thus  ob 
tained  by  surprise,  be  of  any  weight  before 
God  ?  Men  see  only  the  exterior,  and  judge 
from  appearances,  but  hath  the  Lord  eyes  of 
flesh,  like  to  those  of  men,  and  doth  he  not  see 
the  bottom  of  the  heart?  I  ask  you  still  fur 
ther,  whether  distrustful  of  yourself,  and  fear 
ing  that  the  marks  of  your  vocation  would  ap 
pear  altogether  doubtful  to  those  who  were  to 
judge  of  k,  you  have  not  employed  with  them, 
the  solicitation  of  friends,  the  credit  and  recom 
mendation  of  family,  of  rank,  and  of  birth  ? 
Woe  to  us,  if  yielding  to  flesh  and  blood,  we 
have  bartered  the  interests  of  Jesus  Christ,  for 
the  favor  of  men  :  if  we  have  betrayed  that 
church  for  which  its  divine  founder  delivered 
himself  to  death,  and  if  the  same  human  policy, 
ivhich  according  to  the  wisest  rules  of  discipline, 
so  clearly  pointed  out  your  un worthiness,  has 
been  able  to  obtain  from  our  degeneracy,  a  tes 
timony  that  you  were  worthy  of  the  priesthood. 
But,  though  such  should  be  the  case,  could  our 
infidelity  change  holy  and  established  rules  ? 
,Can  we  call  him,  whom  God  rejects?  does  he  not 
curse  our  benedictions?  In  our  weakness  and 
misconduct,  we  have  been  the  interpreters  of 
your  cupidity,  and  not  of  the  wishes  of  the 


266 


ON    THE    VOCATION   TO 


Lord ;  in  a  word,  you  receive  the  testimony  of 
men,  but  you  have  not  the  testimony  of  God. 

You  would  have  reason  to  lay  aside  your 
fears,  if,  without  any  desire  or  procedure  on 
your  part,  and  viewing-,  with  apprehension,  the 
dangers  and  the  excellency  of  the  priesthood, 
another  Ananias  were  sent  to  inform  you  on 
the  part  of  Jesus  Christ,  that  you  were  destined 
to  the  work  of  the  gospel ;  or  that  another  Elias 
had  commanded  you,  like  Eliseus  of  old,  to  re 
nounce  all  earthly  cares,  and  follow  him,  to  be 
the  successor  of  the  prophetic  ministry.  But  if 
the  suffrage  of  your  superiors,  has  been  the 
fruit  of  your  management  and  your  artifice,  it 
is  you,  and  not  the  spirit  of  God,  that  has 
spoken  by  their  mouth  :  your  mission  is  the 
work  of  man:  you  are  not  then  sent  by  God. 
For  although  neither  the  voice  of  flesh  and 
blood,  nor  solicitation,  nor  contrivance,  should 
have  had  any  share  in  the  choice  which  your 
pastors  and  your  superiors  have  made  of  you, 
and  although  in  the  testimony  which  they  have 
given  you,  they  had  followed  only  the  light  and 
impulse  of  their  own  conscience,  still  you  ought 
always  to  tremble,  lest  they  should  have  been 
mistaken :  you  ought  to  fear,  lest  God,  in  pu 
nishment  of  your  secret  sins,  had  sent  on  them 


THE    ECCLESIASTICAL   STATE.  267 

a  spirit  of  error,  and  permitted  them,  in  select 
ing  you,  to  make  an  unworthy  choice  :  for 
their  testimony,  though  it  be  necessary,  is  not 
infallible.  The  Jeromes,  the  Gregories,  the  Au- 
gustines,  the  Nepotians,  the  holiest  Priests  of 
those  happy  ages  in  which  they  flourished,  with 
all  the  clearest  marks  of  a  legitimate  vocation, 
on  the  part  of  their  pastors,  could  not  be  tran 
quillized  on  the  subject  of  these  pious  uncer 
tainties  :  Anchorets,  consummate  in  eminent 
piety,  by  long  macerations,  and  by  an  Angelic 
life,  when  called  by  their  Bishop  to  the  priest 
hood,  maimed  themselves,  to  escape  a  burden 
and  an  honor,  of  which  they  scarcely  thought 
Angels  worthy,  nor  could  the  testimony  and  com 
mand  of  the  Bishop  whom  they  so  much  res 
pected,  strengthen  them  against  the  sentiment 
of  their  own  unworthiness  :  and  you,  who  have 
snatched  their  suffrage  by  artifice;  who  have 
forced  them  to  bless  what  they  ought  rather  to 
curse,  you  are  tranquil  under  such  terrific  pre 
sumption  of  your  guilt  and  imfitness  ?  you 
would  fancy  that  the  church  receives  you  into 
the  number  of  her  ministers,  because  men  whom 
you  have  deceived,  have  not  excluded  you  from 
that  rank :  you  would  persuade  yourself  that 
you  may  be  satisfied  on  the  subject  of  your  vo- 


268  ON   THE   VOCATION   TO 

cation,  because  your  superiors  have  put  no  ob 
stacle  in  the  way  of  your  advancement ;  and 
would  believe  that  you  are  no  intruder,  be 
cause  you  have  compelled  them  to  consent  to 
your  intrusion  ?  Judge,  whether  the  security 
which  you  feel,  is  not  itself  the  most  terrible 
punishment  of  the  crime  that  would  usurp,  with 
out  vocation,  the  formidable  honor  of  the  priest 
hood.  It  remains  then  firmly  established,  that 
the  testimony  of  the  pastors,  is  the  first  mark 
of  our  vocation  to  the  ministry,  as  the  first  mark 
of  the  mission  of  Jesus  Christ,  was  the  testi 
mony  of  his  Father. 

The  second  mark  which  Christ  gives  to  the 
Jews,  of  the  truth  of  his  mission,  is  the  testi 
mony  of  the  prophets  who  had  announced,  and 
of  the  people  who  had  seen  and  heard,  him.  In 
effect,  the  people  appear  every  where  so  favour 
able  to  the  Redeemer,  that  the  Pharisees  mor 
tified  at  his  reception,  could  not  help  complain 
ing  of  the  public  applause  which  he  received,  be 
cause  'they  aspired  to  it  themselves,  and  because 
it  was  the  sole  object  of  their  hypocritical  fasts, 
of  their  long  prayers  and  their  minute  obser 
vances.  The  stupid  and  accursed  crowd,  said 
they,  which  knoweth  not  the  Law,  folio weth 
after  him.  At  one  time,  the  multitude  desire 


THE   ECCLESIASTICAL   STATE.  269 

to  make  him  king  over  Judea  :  at  another-,  they 
glorify  God  who  had  raised  up  so  great  a  pro 
phet  in  Israel :  now  the  women  of  the  holy  city 
bless  the  womb  that  had  borne,  and  the  breast 
that  had  suckled,  him,  and  again  the  people  come 
forth  to  meet  him  in  joy,  and  receive  him,  in 
triumph,  into  Jerusalem. 

And  truly,  how  could  they  withhold  their  ho 
mage  and  acclamations  from  an  extraordinary 
and  divine  man,  who  appeared  to  have  no  other 
desire  than  that  of  the  salvation  of  men  ;  who 
possessing  the  greatest  talents  that  were  yet 
seen  upon  the  earth,  confined  himself  to  a  small 
number  of  obscure  and  rude  disciples,  gave  his 
instructions  to  the  poor,  and  sought  not,  like  the 
vain  founders  of  sects,  to  accredit  his  doctrine, 
by  the  rank  and  distinction  of  his  audience,  but 
by  the  piety  and  the  humility  of  his  followers  : 
a  man  who  could  speak  only  of  heaven,  and  who 
esteemed  as  his  relations  and  his  friends,  those 
only  who  did  the  will  of  his  heavenly  Father : 
a  man,  who,  Lord  of  all  nature,  exercising  com 
mand  over  the  winds  and  the  seas,  multiplying 
bread,  finding  when  he  wished,  treasures  in  the 
very  entrails  of  fishes,  reduced  himself  to  a  con 
dition  far  below  mediocrity,  and  who  appeared 
still  greater  by  his  contempt  of  all  earthly  advan- 


210  ON   THE    VOCATION   TO 

tages,  than  by  the  facility  with  which  he  could 
procure  them  :  a  man,  who  shunned,  without 
despising,  the  great,  and  who  reproved  their 
vices  without  fearing1  their  vengeance :  who  com 
manded  that  which  was  Cesar's,  to  be  given 
to  Cesar,  and  to  God,  that  which  belonged  to 
God  :  and  in  fine,  who  in  the  detail  of  his  most 
private  actions  was  as  great  and  as  divine,  as  in 
those  which  he  performed  under  the  eyes  of 
the  public,  and  in  whom  those  who  were  nearest 
his  person,  never  could  remark  a  single  one  of 
those  moments,  in  which  the  most  austere  vir 
tue  relaxing  itself  into  the  pursuit  of  amusement, 
betrays  the  imperfection  of  man. 

The  suffrage  of  the  people,  is  then  the  second 
mark  of  a  canonical  vocation.  My  dear  bre 
thren,  writes  Saint  Cyprian*  to  his  people,  it  is 
customary  with  us,  to  consult  you  in  our  ordi 
nations,  and  to  examine  in  common  with  you, 
the  morals  and  the  merits  of  those  on  whom  we 
are  to  impose  hands.  It  is  also  just,  as  the 
church  remarks  in  the  pontifical,  that  those  who 
are  to  sail  in  the  same  vessel,  and  who  are  so 
deeply  interested  in  the  skilfulness  of  the  pilot, 
should  have  some  share  in  his  election,  and 

*  Saint  Cyprian.  Ep.  64. 


THE    ECCLESIASTICAL   STATE. 


271 


that  their  opinion  be  respected.  The  Priest  be 
ing  appointed  for  the  people  in  all  things  that 
regard  the  worship  of  God/  it  is  fitting  that 
their  suffrage  should  be  consulted  in  the  choice 
that  is  made  of  him.  Such,  you  know,  in  early 
times,  has  been  the  practice  of  our  fathers :  the 
people  were  called  in,  and  consulted  in  the  or 
dination  of  the  clergy  :  the  Apostles  themselves 
assembled  all  the  faithful,  and  asked  their  suf 
frages  in  the  election  of  the  first  deacons :  con 
siderate  viros  ex  vobis.^  Tlie  imposition  of 
hands,  says  Saint  Cyprian,  is  neither  just  nor 
legitimate,  when  the  candidates  have  not  the  ap 
probation  of  the  public.  According  to  Saint 
Paul,  it  was  even  necessary  to  have  a  good  tes 
timony  from  the  very  infidels:  ab  us  qui  forts 
sunt ;  J  and  to  the  person  who  was  about  to  be 
associated  to  the  sacred  ministry,  nothing  was 
deemed  more  indispensable  than  a  reputation 
pure  and  without  stain,  in  the  opinion  of  the 
people,  lest  the  dignity  of  the  priesthood  should 
be  debased,  or  the  sanctity  of  the  worship  be 
dishonoured,  by  those  who  were  established  its 
ministers. 


*Heb.  G.  v.  ver.  1.  t  Acts.  c.  vi.  v.  3. 

..J  I.Timothy,  c.  iii.  v.  7. 


272 


ON    THE    VOCATION    TO 


I  know  that  the  folly  of  heresy,  which  ever 
tends  to  extremes,  has  urged  this  truth  too  far, 
and,  that  overturning  the  sacred  discipline,  the 
episcopal  authority,  the  sacerdotal  succession, 
and  the  necessity  of  a  mission,  it  has  established 
the  people  and  the  magistrate,  the  only  electors 
of  the  ministers  of  the  sanctuary,  and  thus  de 
graded  the  holy  and  august  ceremonies  of  ordi 
nation  into  popular  tumult  and  civil  arrange 
ment.  But  it  has  ever  been  the  fate  of  those 
whom  the  Lord  has  delivered  up  to  the  vanity 
of  their  own  thoughts,  to  find  error  in  the  very 
paths  of  truth,  and  introduce  new  abuses,  in  at 
tempting  to  restore  ancient  usages. 

The  church  still  asks  the  suffrage  of  the  peo 
ple,  in  the  election  of  her  ministers  :  it  is  a 
remnant  which  she  has  preserved  of  her  first 
practice,  one  of  those  primitive  and  venerable 
features  which  mark  the  ancient  beauty  of  dis 
cipline;  it  serves  as  a  monument  but  cannot  be 
used  as  a  model.  It  is  true,  indeed,  that  in  the 
temple  where  you  are  to  receive  the  imposition 
of  hands,  she  no  longer  assembles  the  faithful, 
to  learn  from  them,  whether  you  have  conversed 
piously  among  them,  and  in  a  manner  worthy  of 
God :  such  a  step  would  be  no  longer  safe,  nor 
indeed  possible  ;  but  do  not  conclude  from  the 


THE    ECCLESIASTICAL    STATE.  273 

omission,  that  she  is  regardless  of  the  consent 
and  the  suffrage  of  the  people  :  she  always  es 
teems  their  testimony,  a  necessary  mark  of  your 
vocation :  the  manner  of  asking  it  has  changed, 
but  the  rule  itself  has  not  altered.  For,  she 
requires  as  an  essential  condition  on  your  part, 
when  you  aspire  to  the  sacred  ministry,  as  an 
indispensable  mark  of  your  call,  that  you  be  able 
to  enter  into  judgment  with  your  people,  and 
take  them  for  witness  of  the  integrity  of  your 
morals  :  she  requires  that  like  Jesus  Christ,  you 
be  in  a  state  to  defy  even  your  enemies  to  con 
vict  you  of  sin,  at  least  of  such  sin  as  brings 
scandal  and  infamy  in  its  train  :  she  requires 
that  like  Tobias,  you  should  have  been  distin 
guished  from  the  rest  of  the  children  of  Israel, 
and  that  whilst  those  of  your  age  had  foolishly 
and  wickedly  run  to  participate  in  the  abomina 
tions  of  Samaria,  you  had  continued  a  faithful 
adorer  of  the  God  of  your  fathers  :*  she  requires,, 
in  fine,  that  the  people,  in  witnessing  the  pu 
rity  and  innocence  of  your  life,  had  a  thousand 
times  blessed  the  womb  that  bore  you  ;  and  that 
their  secret  wishes,  the  public  expectation,  and 
the  entire  consent  of  the  faithful,  had  already 

*  Tobias,  c,  i.  vv.  5.  6. 
T 


274  ON    THE    VOCATION    TO 

raised  you  to  the  sacerdotal  dignity,  long  before 
she  herself  had  resolved  to  place  you  among  her 
ministers.  And  this  is  the  testimony  of  pro 
phecies,  which  your  vocation  ought  to  have,  in 
common  with  the  vocation  of  Christ.  Thus  the 
faithful  of  Lystra  and  Iconium  bore  an  advan 
tageous  testimony  to  the  pious  education  and 
demeanor  of  Timothy  ;  and  their  public  wishes 
for  his  elevation  to  the  priesthood,  which  Saint 
Paul  calls  prophecies,  had  long  preceded  his 
ordination  :  Secundum  praccdcntes  in  te  pro- 

phetias* 

Now,  do  you  find  this  consoling  mark  of  your 
vocation?  Return  to  the  places  and  the  scenes  in 
which  you  have  passed  your  early  years  :  is  your 
memory,  there,  in  benediction  ?  have  you  been 
distinguished  from  the  licentiousness  and  pas 
sions  of  those  of  your  age,  by  morals  more  pure, 
more  grave  and  better  regulated  ?  have  you  ap 
peared  to  the  companions  and  the  witnesses  of 
your  early  conduct,  destined  for  the  altar  by  the 
innocence  of  your  life,  and  by  a  love  for  every 
thing  that  regards  the  divine  worship,  before  the 
church  had  selected  you  for  the  functions  of  her 
ministry? 

*1.  Tim.  c.  i.  v.  IS. 


THE   ECCLESIASTICAL    STATE.  275 

Can  you  allege  in  your  favor  these  early  and 
prophetic  suffrages?  or  rather,,  did  not  your  first 
inclinations  announce  a  dissipated,  worldly,  ef 
feminate  life,  or  a  military,  irreligious  and  tu 
multuous  profession,  rather  than  a  ministry  of 
modesty,  of  piety,  and  of  charity?  Interrogate 
those  who  have  seen  you  :  make  them,  if  you 
can,  consent  to  your  elevation  in  the  sanctuary : 
go  and  gather  their  suffrages,  and  recognise  in 
their  voice,  the  voice  of  God  himself.  With  the 
recollection  of  your  early  transgressions  still 
fresh  in  their  minds,  will  they  not  be  surprised 
at  your  rashness  ?  and  will  they  not  cry  out, 
we  will  not  have  this  man  to  rule  over  us*  It 
is  for  you  to  answer  this  question,  and  for  my 
part,  I  tell  you,  that  you  are  to  be  pitied,  if 
in  this  picture  you  find  your  own  likeness; 
and  if  in  defiance  of  this  public  disapproval  and 
of  a  testimony  so  positive  that  you  are  not 
called,  you  will  yet  present  yourself  at  the 
altar,  loaded,  as  it  were,  with  the  anathema* 
of  the  entire  people.  Behold  the  rule  :  it  is 
for  you,  to  make  the  application  to  yourself: 
If  those  in  the  midst  of  whom  I  have  lived, 


*Noluinus    bunc  regnare   super  nos. 

Luke.  c.  xix.  v.  14. 


276  ON    THE    VOCATION    TO 

were  to  choose  for  themselves  a  pastor,  could  I 
flatter  myself,  that  I  would  be  the  object  of 
their  choice  ?  would  they  think  my  hands  suf 
ficiently  pure  to  present,  at  the  altar,  their  ob 
lations  and  their  vows,  and  to  offer  up  the  blood 
of  the  Lamb  without  spot,  to  wash  away  the 
stains  of  their  sins?  Would  my  tongue  appear 
sufficiently  chaste  to  announce  to  them,  the 
truths  of  eternal  life  ?  my  conduct,  sufficiently 
irreprehensible,  to  give  me  a  right  to  exhort 
them  to  virtue,  and  to  reproach  them  with  their 
infidelities  and  their  crimes?  If  you  have  not 
this  testimony,  either  you  are  not  sent  by  Jesus 
Christ,  or  the  wise  and  general  rules,  by  which 
the  church  directs  us  to  judge  of  the  vocation  of 
all  others,  admit  of  restrictions  and  exceptions, 
when  applied  to  you. 

The  testimonies  then  of  the  pastors  and  of  the 
people,  constitute  the  two  first  marks  of  a  voca 
tion  :  but  they  are  not  sufficient  :  oftentimes 
what  is  great  in  the  eyes  of  men,  is  of  little 
value,  and  rejected  in  the  sight  of  God:  even 
though  all  the  world  were  to  call  you,  and  of 
fer  violence  to  you,  says  Saint  Chrysostom,  exa 
mine  the  dispositions  of  your  heart  and  the  state 
of  your  soul,  and  do  not  yield  to  their  instances, 
if  you  find  yourself  unworthy  of  this  honor. 


THE    ECCLESIASTICAL    STATE.  6(1 

For,  says  this  father,,  if  you  were  unfit  and  un 
worthy  before  you  were  called,,  how  could  you 
have  become  qualified  and  worthy  merely  by  be 
ing  called  ?  An  cum  te  nulhts  vocaret,  imbeciliis 
et  minime  idoneus  eras :  ubi  primum  vero  com- 
perti  sunt  qui  honorem  ad  te  deferunt,  derepente 
in  vatenttm  digue  idoneum  ev&sieti?* 

So,  we  find  that  the  third  mark  which  Christ 
gives  the  Jews  of  the  truth  of  his  mission,  is  the 
testimony  of  his  own  conscience :  and  this  tes 
timony  includes.,  first,  the  innocence  altogether 
divine  of  his  soul  :  the  Prince  of  this  world 
cometh,  says  he,  and  in  me  he  hath  not  any  thing. '\ 
In  the  second  place,  his  love  and  his  zeal  for  the 
functions  of  his  ministry  :  my  meat,  says  he,  is 
to  do  the  will  of  him  that  pent  me,  that  I  may 
perfect  his  work.^  Finally,  the  purity  of  his 
intentions:  /  seek  not,  says  he,  my  own  glory. § 

Now,  can  our  conscience  render  to  us,  this 
triple  testimony  ?  first,  a  testimony  of  inno 
cence:  on  this  I  have  spoken,  on  another  oc 
casion,  II  but  it  is  now  a  necessary  part  of  my 
subject.  Those  of  the  sacerdotal  order,  accord 
ing  to  Saint  Epiphanius,  were  formerly  drawn, 


*St.  Chrysost.  lib  4.  df>  Sacerd.    f  John.  c.  xiv.  v.  30. 

J  Ibid.  c.  iv.  v.  34.       §  Ibid.  c.  yiii.  v.  50. 
||  111  the  Discourse  on  the  ambition  of  the  Clergy, 


278  ON    THE    VOCATION    TO 

almost    exclusively,   from   the  class  of  virgins  : 
Sacerdotium  ex  virginum  ordinc,  prcecipue  con- 
stat.     To  be  honoured  with  the  priesthood   it 
was    necessary    to    have    preserved    innocence. 
Public  penance,  was  itself  an  impediment,  and 
as  a  note  of  infamy,,  which  rendered  the  peni 
tent  incapable  of  being  chosen  for  the  holy  mi 
nistry  :   the  purity  which  was  effected  by  those 
bitter   and  sorrowful   waters,    by   tears  and  by 
macerations,   seemed  to  be  yet  tinged  with  cer 
tain  stains,  which  insulted  the  sanctity  and  the 
majesty  of  the  tremendous  mysteries.     The  pe 
nitent,  it  is  true,  had  become  a  vessel  of  honor, 
was  tried  and  purified  by  penance,  but  the  odor 
of  the    old  leaven  yet  remained,  and  rendered 
him   unworthy  of  being  placed  in  the  sanctuary. 
However  bright  the  wool,  from  which  was  to  be 
formed  the  robes  of  the  Priests,  and  of  the  Le- 
vites  of  the  law,  it  was  esteemed  unclean  and 
rejected,  if  it  lost  its  first  whiteness,  if  its  bril 
liancy  was  not  natural,  but  the  effect  of  art.  The 
stones  that  wrere  to  compose  the  altar  were  not  to 
be  hewn,  that  is,  they  were  to  owe  their  beauty 
not  to  the  industry  of  the  chisscl  or  the  ham 
mer,  but  to  nature   and  the  place  from  which 
they  were  to  be  taken.   These  were  only  figures : 
on  the  part  of  God,   this  extreme  jealousy  of 


THE    ECCLESIASTICAL    STATE.  279 

the  holiness  of  a  temple,  and  of  a  priesthood 
empty  and  figurative,  was  designed  to  point  out 
from  afar,  the  Angelic  purity   required  for  the 
Christian  priesthood.     But  where  are  they  now 
to  be  found,  who  bring  to  the  sacred  banquet, 
the  robe  of  innocence,  which  is  alone  worthy  of 
the  nuptials  of  the  Lamb  ;    that   robe  without 
which  no  one  has  a  right  to  enter  into  this  ho 
ly  place?     O  innocence!    daughter  of  heaven, 
ornament  of  the  sacerdotal  order,  sweet-smelling 
lily  in  the  garden  of  the  Spouse,  alone  worthy 
to    adorn    his   altars,    whither  art  thou    gone? 
hast  thou  forsaken  the  earth  for  ever?  although 
the  world  was  unworthy  of  thee,  couklst  thou 
not  find  an  asylum   in  the  holy  place?  But  kt 
us  not  indulge  in   vain  wishes  and  useless  re 
grets.     Thou,   O  my  God !  still  knowest    some 
chosen  souls,  who  amidst  the  universal  corrup 
tion  of  our  morals,  have  preserved  themselves 
pure  and  agreeable  in  thy  sight:   thy  arm  is  not 
shortened  :  thou  canst  alike  draw  us  from  the 
bottom  of  the  deep,  or  make  us  walk  on  the  sur 
face  of  the  waters  without  being  overwhelmed 
amidst  storms  and  tempests  :  and  it  cost  thee  no 
more  to  preserve  the  three  young  Hebrews  in 
the  centre  of  a  burning  furnace,  Daniel  in  the 
lion's   den,  or  Lot  in  the  midst  of  the  abomi- 


280 


ON    THE    VOCATION    TO 


nations  of  Sodom,  than  the  young  Tobias  under 
the  protection  of  the  paternal  roof,  and  the  pi 
ous  care  of  religious  parents.  But  we  also 
know  ourselves  :  we  confess,  in  thy  presence 
that  we  are  sinners :  and  although  thy  powerful 
hand  might  have  preserved  us  from  corruption, 
we  acknowledge  with  the  deepest  confusion, 
that  we  have  need  of  that  grace  which  delivers, 
of  tha.t  salutary  bath  which  purifies,  from  the 
defilement  of  sin,  and  of  that  second  plank 
which  thou  hast  mercifully  provided  to  save 
those  who  have  had  the  misfortune  of  being  mi 
serably  shipwrecked  after  baptism. 

I  do  not  then  ask  you,  whether  your  inno 
cence  is  still  pure  and  entire.  The  church  be 
ing  scarce  able,  any  longer  to  obtain  it,  seems 
no  longer  to  exact  it :  but  the  functions  of  her 
ministry  are  not  less  sublime,  nor  her  priesthood 
less  holy,  now,  than  in  former  times:  her  spirit 
is  always  the  same ;  and  if  she  now  only  ex 
presses  her  wishes,  instead  of  enforcing  the  an 
cient  severity  of  her  discipline,  it  is  not  she  that 
has  altered,  but  it  is  we  alone  that  have,  as  it 
wrere,  compelled  her  to  change.  But  1  ask  you, 
of  what  kind  are  your  past  sins  and  relapses? 
for  although  the  church  may  no  longer  seem  to 
require  rigorously,  an  innocence  absolutely  en- 


THE    ECCLESIASTICAL    STATE.  281 

tire,  there  are,  nevertheless,  different  degrees 
which  she  carefully  considers  in  the  manner  in 
which  you  may  have  lost  it.  I  ask  you  then  :  are 
your  sins  of  the  nature  of  those  transgressions,, 
into  which  youth  is  sometimes  hurried  by  the 
frailty  of  age,  and  the  seduction  of  bad  example; 
but  from  which  it  is  quickly  drawn  by  a  good 
disposition,  by  a  fund  of  religion,,  and  the  fear 
of  God :  such  transgressions  as  soon  pass  away, 
and  which  not  dwelling  long  in  the  heart,  have 
not  time  to  pervert  it,  to  extinguish  the  faith, 
and  leave  in  the  soul,  durable  and  almost  inde 
lible  impressions  of  vice  ;  in  a  word,  trans 
gressions  rarely  committed  and  promptly  repair 
ed  ?  If  such  be  your  case,  and  such  the  image 
of  your  conscience,  humble  yourself  in  the  pre 
sence  of  the  Lord  :  tremble,  in  feeling  that  you 
bear  about  you  an  unworthiness,  which  accord 
ing  to  the  ancient  rules  of  discipline  should  ex 
clude  you  from  the  sanctuary.  Remain,  like 
the  publican,  at  the  door  of  the  temple,  but  ad 
vance,  if  you  are  commanded ;  and  advance  with 
fear  and  confusion  :  remember  that  in  admitting 
you,  the  church  relaxes  her  former  severity  ; 
that  the  small  number  of  the  innocent  has  caused 
her  to  open  to  penitents,  a  door  into  her  sanc 
tuary  ;  and  that  she  has  no  longer  the  consola- 


282  ON   THE   VOCATION    TO 

tion  of  choosing-  between  tlie  most  holy,  but  is 
obliged  to  select  out  of  the  least  unworthy,  the 
pastors  of  the  flock. 

But  is  the  guilt  of  yotir  past  life  made  up 
of  sins  that  have  become  habitual?  guilt  which 
like  Lazarus  Iralf  putrid,  spreads  infection  and 
stench-  around  :  guilt,  in  which,  the  invete 
racy  of  the  disorder  has  cflarced  from  the  soul, 
not  only  its  first  whiteness,  but  also  every  sen 
timent  of  modesty  and  virtue-;  guilt  in  which 
the  continual  habit  of  crime  has  produced  in  the 
heart  a  disgust  for  the  things  of  heaven,,  and  a 
lamentable  tendency  and  shameful  devotcdness 
to  vice,  which  it  can  scarce  longer  resist  ;  and 
guilt  notwithstanding,  in  which  the  only  mark, 
you  exhibit,  of  change,  ia  to  change  your  state 
of  life;  your  only  penance,  to  clothe  yourself 
with  the  robe  of  innocence  ami  holiness  ;  your 
only  humiliation.,  to  usurp  a  glorious  ministry; 
and  in  a  word,  your  only  qualification  for  the 
priesthood,  to  aspire  rashly  to  its  dignity  and 
present  yourself  a  candidate  for  its  functions?  If 
such  be  the  history  and  such  the  tenor  of  your  life, 
your  ovrn  iniquities  bear  testimony  against  you  : 
the  laws  of  the  church  banish  you,  even  on  this 
very  day,  from  the  holy  place  :  the  circum 
stances  of  your  birth  and  the  command  of  your 


THE   ECCLESIASTICAL    STATE.  283 

parents  call  you  in  vain  ;  it  is  a  voice  of  flesh  and 
blood  which  gives  no  right  to  that  office,  from 
which  you  are  excluded  by  the  order  of  heaven: 
it  is  in  vain  that  domestic  arrangements  seem  to 
open  to  you  the  gate  ;   the  rules  of  the  church 
close  it   against  you  :    it  is  not  the    vile   inte 
rests  of  earth  that  should  give  ministers  to  her 
sanctuary,  but  the  interests  of  heaven,  and  the 
salvation    of   her   children.      Weep   over   your 
crimes,  in  the  state  of  a  simple  laic,  it  is  your 
proper  place ;  but  come  not  here,  to  put  the  seal 
to  all    your  other   iniquities,  by    receiving  the 
sacred  character :    do  not  pollute  the  sanctuary 
by  your  intrusion,    nor  add  to  the  defilement  of 
your  soul,   the  profanation  of  the  house  of  God. 
Touched  by  repentance,  you  may  return  to  God, 
may  move  him  to  clemency,  and  work  out  your 
salvation,   among  the  penitent  faithful,  but  you 
will  die  hardened  and  impenitent  in  the  priest 
hood. 

It  may  be,  that  this  rule  has,  sometimes  suffer 
ed  exceptions :  that  long  and  fervent  penance  has 
made  the  church  forget  former  disorders,  and  that 
a  great  sinner  after  being  purified  by  the  pious 
rigours  of  a  mortified  and  retired  life,  by  the 
abundant  tears  of  sincere  repentance,  by  acts  of 
virtue  still  more  public  and  longer  continued 


ON   THE    YOCATItfN    TO 


than  his  crimes;  it  may  be,  I  say,  that  such  a 
one  has  become  a  holy  priest,  has  honoured  his 
ministry,  and  that  having  himself  had  full  expe 
rience  of  the  allurements  and  the  temptations 
of  the  world,  he  labours  \vith  more  zeal,  more 
unction  and  greater  success  to  prevent  his  bre 
thren  from  falling  into  the  snares  of  the  enemy: 
but  when  there  is  question  of  making  an  excep 
tion  to  the  rule,  it  is  necessary  that  the  advan 
tages  to  be  derived  from  the  deviation,  compen 
sate  the  inconveniences  of  the  infraction.     Now 
it  is  for  you   to   inform   us,  what  great  advan 
tages  the  church  can  expect  from  your  promo 
tion  to  the  priesthood.     For  my  part,  all  I  can 
say  to  you,  is,  that  if  you  have  any  faith  yet  re 
maining,  it  ought  to  terrify  you  from  entering 
into  a  state,  of  which  the  general  rule  declares 
you  to  be  unworthy,  and  in   which  your  only 
assurance  that  you  are  not  a  profaner  and  an  in 
truder,  must  arise  from  the  belief,  that  your's  is 
that  singular  case,  that  rare  exception,  one  of 
those  prodigies  of  which  an  age  can  scarce  fur 
nish  a  single  example. 

But  besides  this  testimony  of  innocence,  your 
conscience  should  also  render  to  you,  a  testimony 
of  love  for  the  sacred  functions  of  the  ministry. 
Christ  as  yet,  in  his  tender  years,  retires  pri- 


THE    ECCLESIASTICAL   STATE.  1285 

vately  from  his  parents  to  the  temple,  where  he 
is  found,  after  three  days,  in  the  midst  of  the 
Jewish  Doctors,  already  making  as  it  were,  the 
first  essay  of  his  ministry.  The  young  Samuel 
ministered,  every  day,  in  the  house  of  the  Lord,, 
and  the  scripture  remarks,  that  he  even  rose  from 
sleep  when  he  thought  that  the  voice  of  the  High 
Priest  Heli  called  him  to  any  thing  that  regard 
ed  the  decency  or  the  beauty  of  God's  worship.* 
This  early  love,  this  esteem  for  the  functions 
of  the  ministry,  has  always  appeared  in  those 
Saints  who  were  destined  by  heaven  to  the  al 
tar,  and  has  ever  been  considered  as  a  mark  of 
vocation,,  and  a  happy  presage  of  the  priest 
hood. 

But  if  you  do  not  feel  yourself  born  for  the 
ecclesiastical  functions  :  if  you  never  appear  to 
be  less  in  your  proper  place  than  when  you  are 
seated  in  the  temple,  amongst  the  ministers  of 
the  Lord  ;  if  the  ornaments  in  which  the  church 
clothes  you,  are  for  you  a  strange  attire,  which 
not  only  does  not  become  you,  but  which  even 
disconcerts  and  embarrasses  you  ;  if,  the  dress 
of  the  world  accords  much  better  with  the  air, 
the  effrontery  and  the  dissipation  of  your  coun- 

*1.  Kings,  c.  iii. 


ON    THE    VOCATION    TO 

tenance ;  if  the  modesty  which  the  sacred  canons 
so  often  recommend  to  the  clergy,  in  their 
dress,  their  hair  and  their  entire  person,  ap 
pears  to  you  a  ridiculous  restraint,  the  mere  re 
sult  of  bad  taste  ;  if  like  the  Jewish  children 
you  even  mock  the  prophets  of  the  Lord,*  the 
most  holy  of  his  ministers,  who  despising  the 
superfluities  of  art,  bear  on  their  bald  and  vene 
rable  heads,  the  simplicity  and  the  glory  of  the 
priesthood;  if  the  august  spectacle  of  our  cere 
monies,  is  for  you,  a  tiresome  exhibition  ;  if 
you  regard  with  foolish  contempt,  the  inferior 
offices  of  the  ministry  ;  if  like  the  proud  Mi- 
chol,f  you  look  with  derision  on  those  who  lay 
aside  their  greatness  before  the  Ark,  and  think 
themselves  honoured  by  the  lowest  functions  that 
regard  the  divine  worship,  (I  mean  the  lowest  in 
the  sight  of  men,  but  always  infinitely  sublime 
in  the  eyes  of  faith;)  if,  I  say,  such  be  the  por- 

*  And  he  (Eliseus)  went  up  from  thence  to  Bethel  : 
and  as  he  was  going  up  by  the  way,  little  boys  came 
out  of  the  city  and  mocked  him,  saying:  Go  up  thou 
bald-head,  go  up  thou  bald-head.  And  looking- 
back,  he  saw  them,  and  cursed  them  in  the  name  of 
the  Lord:  and  there  came  forth  two  bears  out  of 

the  forest,  and  tore  of  them  two  and  forty  boys. 

4.  Kings,  c.  ii.  vv.  23.  24. 

f2.  Kings,  c.  vi.  v.  16. 


THE    ECCLESIASTICAL    STATE,  £87 

trait  of  your  dispositions,  judge  yourself,  what 
ought  we  to  think  of  your  vocation.  Unques 
tionably  God  has  no  more  written  it  on  your 
heart,  than  on  your  person  :  a  taste  and  inclina 
tions  so  opposed  to  the  holy  state  to  which  you 
aspire,  do  not  indicate  that  heaven  has  intended 
you  for  tke  priesthood:  so  decided  a  repug 
nance  to  the  spirit  and  the  functions  of  the  mi 
nistry  clearly  points  out  the  designs  of  God  in 
your  regard:  he  inspires  a  desire  and  a  love  of  the 
state  to  which  he  calls ;  and  could  he  give  yon  a 
stronger  proof  that  he  does  not  destine  you  for 
his  ministry,  than  by  the  marked  dislike  which 
you  feel  for  all  its  duties  ?  And  what  further  ex 
planation  do  you  require  on  tlie  part  of  God  ? 
it  is  not  necessary  that  a  voice  from  heaven 
should  say  to  you,  as  it  once  said  to  Samuel  : 
Him  the  Lord  hath  not  chosen :  Non  hunc  elegit 
Dominus  :*  whatever  we  behold  in  you,  suffici 
ently  says  so,  to  us  ;  and  the  voice  of  your  own 
heart  and  inclinations  says  it,  still  more  clearly 
to  yourself. 

The  last  testimony  which  your  conscience 
ought  to  bear  to  you,  is  a  testimony  of  the  pu 
rity  of  your  intentions  in  dedicating  yourself  to 

*1.  Kings,  c.  xvi.  v,  8. 


288  ON   THE   VOCATION   TO 

the  service  of  the  altar  Christ  did  not  come  to 
be  served  but  to  serve  :  that  is  to  say,  he  came, 
not  to  fill  the  first  places  in  the  synagogue,,  nor 
to  occupy  a  splendid  station  in  his  country,  but 
to  minister  to  the  necessities,  and  devote  him 
self  for  the  salvation,  of  his  brethren  :  he  came 
to  manifest  the  name  and  the  glory  of  his  Fa 
ther  to  men,  to  bring  back,  the  strayed  sheep  of 
the  house  of  Israel  :*  zeal,  charity  and  holi 
ness  were  the  only  splendor  of  his  ministry. 
It  is  for  you  to  answer  for  the  purity  of  your 
intentions;  to  say,  whether  you  do  not  pro 
pose  to  yourself  splendor  and  distinction  of  ano 
ther  sort ;  whether  you  enter  into  the  priest 
hood  to  serve,  and  to  labour  for  the  salvation  of 
the  people.  I  do  not  pretend  to  penetrate  into 
the  most  secret  folds  of  your  heart :  God  knows' 
you,  and  that  is  sufficient :  but  it  would  not  be 
necessary  to  sink  deep,  to  perceive  at  once,  the 
views  which  conduct  to  the  church,  the  greater 
part  of  those  who  consecrate  themselves  to  her 
ministry ;  the  motives  of  interest  which  influ 
ence  vocations,  are  as  public  and  as  certain,  as 
the  vocations  themselves  are  doubtful.  Have 
you  the  misfortune  to  be  of  this  number?  to  as- 

*  Matthew,  c.  xv.  T.  24. 


THE   ECCLESIASTICAL   STATE.  289 

certain  it,  enter  into  judgment  with  yourself: 
\vhat  do  I  propose  to  myself  in  the  holy  state  for 
which  1  now  declare?  labors,  cares,  watchings; 
the  salvation  of  souls,  the  enlargement  of  the 
kingdom  of  Christ  :  the  destruction  of  the  em 
pire  of  Satan  ?  have  I  nothing  in  view  but  these 
laborious  duties,  in  the  inheritance  of  Jesus 
Christ  ?  do  not  lie  to  the  Holy  Ghost,  but  ra 
ther  confess  your  injustice  before  the  Lord.  It 
is  written*  that  when  Moses  was  about  to  es 
tablish  Eleazar  High  Priest  in  the  place  of 
Aaron,  he  conducted  him  to  the  top  of  a  high 
mountain,  whence  could  be  seen  the  rich  plains 
about  the  Jordan,  and  the  abundance  and  ferti 
lity  of  the  Holy  Land,  that  was,  one  day,  to  be  his 
portion  :  and  it  was  in  the  sight  of  the  milk  and 
honey  which  flowed  through  that  happy  country, 
that  he  clothed  him  with  the  sacerdotal  ornaments. 
When  your  connexions  according  to  the  flesh, 
clothed  you,  themselves,  as  it  were,  in  the  sacred 
ensigns  of  the  ministry,  did  they  not  lead  you  to 
a  high  mountain,  whence  they  made  you  behold 
from  afar,  the  wealth,  the  fertility,  the  milk  and 
honey  of  a  land,  of  which  they  promised,  and 
made  you  expect,  the  possession  ?  and  has  not 

*  Numbers,  c.  xx.  vv.  27.  28. 
U 


290  ON    THE    VOCATION    TO 

this  expectation  been  the  purest  motive  of  your 
entry  into  the  church,  and  formed  your  entire 
vocation  ?  speak  the  truth,  and  give  glory  to 
God.  What  do  you  seek  in  the  church  ?  its 
riches,  or  its  duties?  its  honors,  or  its  toils? 
the  fleece  of  the  flock,  or  the  salvation  of  the 
sheep  ?  the  gold  of  the  altar,  or  the  God  who 
is  there  adored  ?  what  talents  do  you  bring  to 
this  holy  warfare  ?  strength,  courage,  subdued 
senses  ;  or  effeminacy,  the  love  of  repose,  a  taste 
for  luxurious  and  expensive  pleasures?  Nemo 
miles  ad  helium  cum  deJiciis  venit,  says  Ter- 
tullian  :  and  the  Lord  himself  speaks  to  you,  a« 
he  did,  formerly  to  the  soldiers  of  Gideon  ;  Jet 
him  who  brings  nothing  to  the  field,  but  weak 
ness,  pusillanimity,  the  fear  of  labor,  and  of 
hardships,  return  to  the  house  of  his  father : 
Qui  llmidus  ct  formidolosus  esty  revert  atur.* 

I  admitf  that  it  is  natural  and  just  to  expect, 
i>n  entering  into  the  church,  the  decent  retribu 
tion  of  tlte  cares  and  the  toils  of  the  priesthood : 


*  Judith,  c.  vii.  v.  3. 

f  There  is  in  this  place,  for  two  or  three  sentences, 
a  slight  deviation  from  the  original  ;  it  is  no  greater 
than  seemed  necessary  to  suit  this  part  of  the  dis 
course  to  the  situation  of  the  ecclesiastical  candi 
dates  of  these  countries.  In  France  and  other  Ca 
tholic  kingdoms  of  Europe,  benefices  were  often 


THE    ECCLESIASTICAL   STATE.  291 

the  labourer  is  worthy  of  his  hire:*  but  to  en 
gage  in  a  holy  and  terrible  ministry,  merely  to 
obtain  the  succession  of  a  living,  of  which  one  of 
our  family  is  already  possessed:  merely  because 
our  hopes  on  the  side  of  the  church  arc  more  cer 
tain  and  more  brilliant,  than  on  that  of  the  world ; 
only  because  our  name  or  our  parentage  will 
warrant  us  to  aspire  to  the  highest  dignity ;  only 
because  our  connexions  according  to  the  flesh, 
like  the  mother  of  the  sons  of  Zebedee,f  have  al 
ready  asked  for  us,  the  first  places  in  the  kingdom 
of  Christ;  in  a  word,  to  speak  still  more  clearly,  to 
bear  as  the  only  mark  of  vocation,  to  a  ministry 
of  humility,  views  and  desires  of  elevation  ;  to  a 
ministrv  of  labor  and  solicitude,  hopes  of  repose 
and  tranquillity  ;  to  a  ministry  of  mortification 
and  poverty,  the  love  of  luxury  and  abundance; 
to  go  to  Christ  like  the  carnal  Jews,  not  because 
he  has  the  word  of  life,  but  because  he  mul 
tiplies  the  bread  of  earth  :  to  renounce  all  in 


conferred  on  individuals  before  they  had  attained 
the  age  for  ordination,  and  Massillon  justly  cen 
sures  those  who  presented  themselves  for  the  mi 
nistry,  without  any  other  mark  of  a  vocation,  and 
with  whom,  the  prospect  of  enjoying-  such  a  pro 
vision,  during  life,  was  the  only  motive  for  enga 
ging  in  holy  orders. 

*Luke.  c.  x.  v.  7.       t  Matthew,  c.  xx.  v.  21. 


292  ON    THE    VOCATION    TO 

order  to  find  all,  or  rather  to  forsake  a  ship  and 
nets,  to  become  the  princes  of  the  people  :  this 
is  a  criminal  motive  ;  who  is  there  that  is  igno 
rant  of  it  ?  and  can  crime,  O  my  God !  be  the 
mark  of  a  vocation  to  the  most  holy  of  all  pro 
fessions  ? 

But  it  is  not  yet  enough  for  you,  to  have  that 
testimony  of  conscience,  which  includes  inno 
cence  of  life,  a  love  for  the  duties  of  the  minis 
try,  and  purity  of  intention  :  it  is  further  neces 
sary  for  you  to  examine,  whether  you  possess 
the  peculiar  talents  of  this  state,  and  whether 
you  are  likely  to  be  useful  to  the  church.  So 
the  last  mark,  which  Christ  produces  of  the  truth 
of  his  mission,  is  the  testimony  of  his  miracu 
lous  works  and  of  his  doctrine.  All  admired  the 
unction  of  the  words  that  fell  from  his  lips:  ne 
ver  had  man  spoken  as  he  spoke  :  he  did  not, 
like  the  ostentatious  Pharisees,  seek  to  catch  the 
vain  applause  of  the  multitude,  nor  had  he  re 
course  to  that  cautious  reserve,  which  has  for 
its  object,  not  the  salvation,  but  the  esteem,  of 
men  ;  but  he  spoke  with  the  force  and  authority 
of  truth,  and  with  that  divine  simplicity  which 
regards  not  the  rank,  but  the  necessities,  of  its 
auditors. 

You  are  well  aware  that  we  require  of  yon. 
neither  the  miracles  nor  the  divine  eloquence 


THE    ECCLESIASTICAL    STATE.  293 

of  Jesus  Christ  :  but  we  require  talents  capable 
of  instructing  the  people,  and  of  discharging 
with  success,  the  various  duties  of  your  minis 
try  ;  and  this  is  the  last  mark  that  should  bear 
testimony  to  the  truth  of  your  vocation.  Now 
what  talents  do  you  possess?  You  have,  perhaps., 
been  born  with  all  the  talents  necessary  for  the 
world  :  employ  then  for  the  world,  what  you 
have  received  for  it.  You  have,  perhaps,  those 
qualities  which  are  requisite  to  please  the  world, 
and  attract  its  admiration  ;  to  live  in  it  with  de 
light  and  distinction,  but  what  talents  have  you 
for  the  vineyard  of  Jesus  Christ,  to  edify,  to 
plant,  to  pluck  up?  to  shine  like  a  bright -star, 
in  the  midst  of  a  corrupt  age  ?  When  Moses 
was  about  to  erect  the  tabernacle,  each  one  came 
to  contribute  to  its  construction,  offering  gifts 
of  gold,  of  precious  stones,  of  purple,  and  of 
the  skins  of  animals.*  What  can  you  offer  on 
your  part,  for  the  construction  of  the  celestial 
tabernacle,  of  the  spiritual  edifice  of  the  church, 
for  the  formation  of  the  mystic  body  of  Christ 
Jesus  ?  If  you  cannot  contribute  gold  or  pre 
cious  stones,  as  all  are  not  Apostles,  all  are  not 
Evangelists  ;  at  least,  can  you  offer  a  moderate 

*  Exodus,  c.  35. 


-94  ON    THE   VOCATION   TO 

gift?  Something*  must  be  given;  and  it  should 
be  remembered,  that  what  is  the  least  shining, 
is  not  always  the  least  useful. 

Now  in  what  manner  can  you  render  your 
self  useful  to  the  church  ?  Is  it  by  your  know 
ledge  and  your  abilities  ?  but  born,  perhaps, 
with  a  mind  impatient  alike  of  control  and  of 
labor,  is  it  not  either  pure  constraint  or  the  am 
bition  of  going  through  your  collegiate  course 
with  honor,  that  has  attached  you  to  your 
books  ?  and  do  you  not  look  forward  to  the 
priesthood  as  the  happy  term,  which  is  to  put 
an  end  to  all  your  researches  and  all  your  stu 
dies  ?  Is  it  by  your  talents  as  a  speaker?  but 
piety  and  a  knowledge  of  religion,  can  alone 
render  these  talents  useful  to  the  church  ;  and 
what  fruit  can  she  expect  from  your  instruc 
tions,  if  you  destroy  the  effect  of  them,  by  the 
example  of  your  misconduct?  Is  it  by  the  gra 
vity,  at  least,  of  your  morals?  but  if  your  whole 
person  bespeaks  a  worldly  air,  if  the  fashion  and 
the  indelicacy  of  the  world,  are  exhibited  in 
o\ery  part  of  your  dress  and  appearance,  how 
will  you  edify  the  church,  whilst  you  despise  its 
rules,  since  you  do  not  edify  even  the  world  which 
you  imitate  i  Is  it  by  your  zeal  ?  but  are  not  the 
scandals  and  abuses  of  the  world  more  likely  to 


THE  ECCLESIASTICAL  STATE.  295 

inflame  your  passions,  than  to  fill  you  with  a 
holy  indignation  ?  will  you  not  feel  more  desire 
ttf  imitate,  than  to  abolish  or  reprove,  them  ? 
and  have  you  the  zeal  and  the  skill  necessary  to 
gain  the  heart,  and  obtain  the  confidence  of 
those  whose  conscience  is  a  mass  of  crime, 
which  has  never  yet  been  explored?  but  how 
do  we  know,  whether  you,  yourself,  do  not  bear 
in  your  own  conscience,  depths  of  guilt,  into 
which  you  have  not  suffered  the  light,  as  yet, 
to  penetrate  ?  Is  it  by  the  solidity  of  your 
judgment,  and  your  talent  for  governing  your 
brethren?  but  if  your  whole  life  has  been 
made  up  of  irregularities  ;  if  your  conduct  ever 
changes,  and  never  resembles  itself ;  if  the  pre 
sent  moment  can  never  answer  for  the  moment 
that  is  to  follow  ;  if  hitherto  there  has  been  no 
thing  fixed  or  uniform  in  your  charactei\  ex 
cept  your  inconstancy  ;  if  you  have  never  right- 
ly  governed  the  house  of  your  own  heart ;  how 
will  you  govern  the  church  of  God  ?*  Is  it  by 
your  name,  and  the  consideration  to  which  you 
are  entitled  in  the  world  ?  undoubtedly  a  great 
name  in  a  holy  Priest,  gives,  as  it  were,  a  new 


*Si  quis  autem  domui  suae  praresse  nescit,  quo- 
niodo  Ecclesla)  Dei  diligentiam  habebit  ? — 1.  Tina, 
e.  iii.  ^.  5. 


ON    THE    VOCATION    TO 

weight  and  authority  to  his  ministry  :  but,  alas! 
all  the  expectation  which  the  church  can  form 
regarding  you,  is,  that  your  name  will  be  made 
the  pretext  of  your  luxury,  of  your  extrava 
gance,  and  of  your  bad  use  of  the  patrimony  of 
Jesus  Christ.  Finally,  is  it  by  the  dignities,  of 
which  your  birth  or  your  connexion  seems  to 
be  a  pledge,  and  which  you  cannot  fail  to  ob 
tain  in  the  church  ?  but  if  this  be  the  motive  of 
your  vocation  ;  if  the  credit  alone  of  an  earthly 
name  or  kindred  with  certain  members  of  the 
hierarchy,  is  to  elevate  you  to  sacerdotal  honors, 
if  ilesh  and  blood  are  to  put  you  in  possession 
of  the  priesthood  of  Melchisedec,  who  knevr 
neither  parents  nor  genealogy,  your  name  and 
your  alliance  will  serve  only  to  render  the  scan 
dal  of  your  administration  more  striking  and 
more  public  :  you  will  carry  into  the  sanctuary, 
the  pride,  the  pomp,  the  spirit  of  the  very  world, 
which  has  placed  you  in  it;  in  defiance  of  all 
rule  and  of  the  holy  discipline  of  former  times, 
you  will  gather  unto  yourself,  the  goods  and 
the  dignities  of  the  church,  under  the  pretext 
that  your  profusion  should  be  proportioned  to 
the  splendor  of  your  name,  or  of  your  con 
nexions,  as  if  the  patrimony  of  the  poor  were 
intended  to  minister  to  the  pride  of  birth,  und 


THE    ECCLESIASTICAL   STATE.  297 

the  vanity  of  upstart  insolence ;  or  that  the 
church  recognised  in  her  ministers,  something 
raiore  exalted  than  the  ministry  itself. 

What  then  can  you  offer  to  the  church,  which 
she  can  expect  to  employ  for  the  advancement 
of  God's  honor  and  the  salvation  of  her  chil 
dren  ?  these  are  the  only  objects  which  she  hag 
in  view,  in  the  selection  of  her  ministers.  The 
kingdom  of  Christ,  as  you  are  aware,  is  a  field, 
into  which  no  one  should  enter,  who  will  not 
labour ;  and  to  remain  idle  and  useless  in  it,  is 
unjustly  to  occupy  a  soil,  which  would  have  been 
cultivated  by  another.  It  is  true,  there  are  va 
rious  works  to  be  executed,  but  you  must  be 
prepared  to  perform  some  one  of  them  :  if  you 
are  unfit  for  all,  the  church  has  no  need  of  your 
services ;  far  from  being  of  any  assistance  to 
her,  you  would  be  only  her  embarrassment  and 
reproach. 

From  all  that  I  have  hitherto  said,  you  may 
easily  collect,  what  should  be  the  fruit  of  this  dis 
course  :  it  is,  that  each  one  of  you  should  examine 
whether  his  vocation  be  marked  with  these  four 
characters,  namely,  the  testimony  of  the  pastors, 
the  testimony  of  the  people,  the  testimony  of 
his  own  conscience,  and  in  fine,  the  testimony 
of  his  talents  :  that  is  to  sav,  whether  your  mi*r 


298  ON   THE   TOCATION    Ttt 

sion  resembles  the  mission  of  Jesus  Christ,  and 
whether  he  has  sent  you,  as  he  was  sent  by 
his  Father :  Sicut  misit  me  Pater,  et  ego  mhto 
-cos.  If  you  do  not  find  in  yourself  these 
holy  marks;  if  you  even  doubt  that  you  pos 
sess  them  ;  do  not  advance  ;  be  not  so  rash 
as  to  present  yourself;  wait  at  least  til!  the 
Lord  shall  have  declared  his  will  more  clearly 
in  your  regard.  The  consequences  of  enter 
ing1  into  the  holy  ministry  without  a  vocation, 
are  truly  terrible.  For,  first,  if  you  enter  into 
the  priesthood  without  being*  called,,  you  will 
not  receive  the  grace  of  the  imposition  of  hands : 
you  will  be  marked  with  the  sacred  character, 
it  is  true  ;  but  it  will  be  for  you,  a  character  of 
reprobation,  and  you  will  not  receive  with  it, 
the  effusion  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  so  essentially 
necessary  to  support  you  in  the  discharge  of  its 
various  duties.  Thus  abandoned  to  your  own 
weakness,  your  functions  will  be  turned  into  so 
many  occasions  of  your  destruction  :  the  tribu 
nal  will  become  the  snare  of  your  innocence  : 
the  pulpit,  the  theatre  of  your  pride :  the  altar, 
the  place  of  your  sacrilegious  crimes  :  the  pa 
trimony  of  Christ,  the  occasion  of  your  extra 
vagance  or  your  avarice  :  the  use  of  holy  things, 
the  source  of  your  irreligion  and  impenitence  : 


THfi    ECCLESIASTICAL   STATE.  299 

solicitations  will  corrupt,  and  human  policy  will 
influence.,  your  actions:  the  rules  of  the  church 
must  yield  to  your  interests,  and  her  truths 
will  find  in  you  a  protector,  only  when  it  is 
your  advantage,  to  defend  them  :  if  you  are  a 
pastor,  you  will  be  a  hireling-:  if  raised  to  dig 
nity,  you  will  be  the  man  of  sin,  seated  in  the 
temple  of  the  living  God.  And  why?  because 
in  receiving  the  exterior  unction  of  the  minis 
try,  you  have  not  at  the  same  time,  received  the 
interior  unction  of  the  Holy  Ghost:  the  church, 
by  the  imposition  of  hands,  has  not  conferred 
on  you,  that  grace,  which  alone  could  enable 
you  to  support  the  sacred  burden  of  the  priest 
hood  :  the  yoke  will  press  you  to  the  ground  ; 
you  will  fall  at  every  step;  all  your  functions 
wrill  be  so  many  profanations:  those  whom  you 
are  to  conduct,  you  will  lead  to  destruction,  and 
in  their  perdition  you  will  find  your  own.  Saul, 
says  Saint  Gregory,  though  called  by  heaven, 
was  reproved,  because,  when  he  was  anointed 
prince  over  Israel,  he  received  but  a  part  of 
the  grace  of  royalty;  for  the  Lord  commanded 
Samuel  to  pour  on  his  head,  merely  a  little  vial 
of  oil,  the  figure  of  the  grace  from  above  ; 
Tulit  lenticulam  old*  David,  on  the  contrary, 

*1.  Kings,  c.  x.  r.  1. 


300  ON    THE    VOCATION    TO 

becomes  a  king  according  to  the  heart  of  God, 
because  the  grace  of  his  consecration  is  far  more 
abundant ;  for  Samuel  had  orders  from  the  Lord, 
to  take  a  good  measure  of  oil,  and  pour  it  on 
the  head  of  the  son  of  Jesse :  Imple  cornu  luuiu 
oleo*  If  the  different  measure  of  the  grace  of 
consecration,  could  produce  so  great  a  difle- 
rence  between  the  reigns  and  the  virtues  of 
these  two  monarchs ;  if  the  former  was  re 
proved  ;  if  his  reign  was  one  continued  series 
of  misfortunes  and  of  crimes,,  solely  because  he 
had  not  received,  with  the  kingly  unction,  the 
plenitude  of  the  grace  of  that  royalty,  to  which, 
notwithstanding,  he  was  called;  what  is  to  be 
your  lot?  you,  whom  God  has  not  called  to  this 
sacred  and  sacerdotal  royalty;  you,  to  whom 
he  will  consequently  refuse  the  very  least  share 
of  the  grace  of  this  holy  state  ;  you,  whose 
very  consecration  will  be  a  crime,  and  on  whom 
every  drop  of  the  holy  unction  that  is  poured, 
will  be  as  so  many  burning  coals,  which  the 
justice  of  God,  heaps  on  your  head,  as  if  to  de 
vote  you  from  that  very  moment,  to  the  eternal 
flames  :  do  you,  yourself,  judge,  what  are  the 
frightful  consequences,  which  you  must  expect 

*1.  Kings,  c.  xvi.  v.  1. 


THE    ECCLESIASTICAL   STATE.  301 

from  a  priesthood,,  received  and  commenced,  un 
der  such  horrible  auspices. 

A  last  reflection  which  I  entreat  you  to  make 
\)n  the  consequences  of  a  bad  vocation,,  to  the 
priesthood,  is,,  that  it  is  very  difficult  to  supply 
the  defect  of  a  vocation,  in  any  condition  of  life; 
but  in  the  priesthood,  though  I  would  not  pre 
sume  to  say  that  it  is  impossible,  for  who  would 
dare  to  limit  the  power  and  the  mercy  of  the 
Almighty?  yet,  the  ordinary  rules  of  faith  seem 
to  inform  us  that  it  is  entirely  hopeless.  For, 
I  will  not  say,  that  a  bad  vocation  is  a  crime, 
upon  which,  God  permits  us,  to  be,  almost  al 
ways,  without  remorse  ;  and  that  out  of  so  many 
Priests  who  enter  every  day,  so  unworthily,  into 
the  ministry,  you  have  scarcely  ever  seen  one 
that  has  known  and  acknowledged  his  intrusion, 
or  even  thought  of  a  scruple  on  the  subject ;  as 
if  thy  justice,  O  my  God!  could  not  sufficiently 
punish  this  enormous  transgression,  except  by 
the  fatal  blindness  which  always  conceals  it  from 
the  eyes  of  the  unfortunate  individual,  who  has 
had  the  hardihood  to  render  himself  guilty  of 
it.  But  I  say,  that  even  although  you  should 
feel  some  remorse  about  your  vocation,  still  you 
will  find  so  many  false  reasons  to  confound  or 
pacify  your  conscience  ;  you  will  j-ce  ^o  manjr 


OS    THE    VOCATION   TO 

others  whose  vocation  appears  not  more  certain 
than  your  own,  that  you  will  regard  this  remorse 
as  the  remains  of  those  impresBtorrs  which  were 
made  on  you  in  the  place  of  your  retreat,,  where 
your  guides  and  instructors  represented  things 
in  whatever  colour  thev  pleased.  Who,  you  will 
say,  can  fathom  the  secrets  of  the  Most  High  ? 
are  we  not  all  equally  uncertain  of  his  designs 
in  our  regard  ?  and  by  this  reflection,  your  re 
morse  is  appeased,  and  you  will  live  tranquilly 
in  that  state,  all  the  rules  of  which  tell  you,  that 
God  had  never  called  you  to  it. 

But  I  will  suppose  that  the  voice  of  consci 
ence  prevails,  and  that  tlie  intruder  is  compelled 
to  confess  his  guilt,  in  secret,  to  God.  Par  a 
Priest,  there  is  a  great  distance  indeed,  between 
conviction  and  compunction  :  by  a  long  inter 
course  with  holy  things,  he  falls  into  a  frightful 
lethargy  from  which  he  can  be  no  longer  avva-- 
kened  ;  and  it  is  certain,  that  a  Priest  is  almost 
never  converted  to  penance.  But  although  you 
were  to  be  truly  touched,  and  that  God  were  to- 
grant  to  you  the  grace  of  compunction,  which 
lie  rarely  accords  tf*  a  wicked  Priest,  still  what 
measures  can  you  adopt  ?  what  reparation  can 
you  make  ?  or  what  remedies  can  we  prescribe 
for  your  malignant  and  inveterate  disorders?  Is 


THE    ECCLESIASTICAL   STATE.  303 

it  to  tear  you  from  the  altar,  where  you  have  so 
often  appeared  before  the  assembly  of  the  faith 
ful  ?  or  to  suffer  you  to  remain  against  the  com 
mand  of  God  who  rejects  you  ?  Must  we  dis 
close  your  ignominy.,  in  stripping  you  of  the 
sacred  dignity,  with  which  you  are  clothed  ?  or 
must  we  dissemble  the  ignominy  of  the  church 
in  suffering  you  to  continue  to  wear  it?  You 
have  made  engagements  which  you  can  no  long 
er  abandon  ;  and  can  you  be  in  the  impossibi 
lity  of  working  out  your  salvation  ?  but  on  the 
other  hand,  hpw  can  you  be  saved  in  a  profes 
sion  which,  as  it  is  jiot  that  to  which  God  has 
called  you,  cannot  be  for  you,  the  way  to  salva 
tion  ?  Besides,  will  your  repentance  be  so  heroic, 
as  to  effect  those  violent  separations  ;  those  sig 
nal  renunciations ;  to  produce  that  extraordi 
nary  change,  the  singularity  of  which,  and  the 
public  astonishment,  which  it  could  not  fail  to 
excite  ;  will  deter  you  more,  will  act  as  greater 
restraints,  than  ail  the  bonds  of  self  love,  which 
you  would  be  necessitated  to  burst  for  its  ac 
complishment?  In  fine,  I  say  nothing  of  the  num 
berless  evils  which  your  intrusion  had  caused  i« 
the  church,  and  which  you  would  be  obliged  to 
repair  :  your  labors  without  benediction,  your 
ministry  without  Advantage;  so  many  souls 


ON    THE    VOCATION    TO 

whose  salvation  would  have  been  secured  by 
the  labors  of  a  faithful  pastor,  and  who  perished 
through  your  misconduct;  so  many  abuses  sanc 
tioned  by  your  example;  so  many  others  uncor- 
rected  through  your  negligence  and  want  of 
zeal ;  so  much  condescension  at  the  expense  of 
your  sacred  obligations ;  so  many  just,  scanda 
lized;  so  many  weak,  seduced;  so  many  sin 
ners  confirmed  in  their  disorders  ;  behold  the 
gulph  into  which  you  are  about  to  plunge, 
if  contrary  to  the  order  of  God,  and  without 
any  mark  of  vocation,  you  present  yourself  to 
receive  the  imposition  of  hands.  Can  you  be 
so  far  infatuated,  so  abandoned  of  God,  as  thus 
to  expose  yourself  to  certain  destruction  ?  Is 
your  soul  so  stamped  with  the  character  of  re 
probation,  so  hardened  against  all  the  terrors  of 
faith,  as  to  advance;  to  brave,  with  audacious 
impiety,  the  orders  of  heaven  ;  to  choose  the 
ministry  of  Christ,  only  to  profane,  with  greater 
frequency  and  greater  facility,  his  venerable 
mysteries,  in  his  very  temple;  to  enter  into  his 
fold,  only  to  seize  and  slaughter  with  greater 
ease,  those  very  sheep  which  his  Father  had 
given  him,  and  \v!iieh  he  redeemed  by  the  shed 
ding  of  his  blood?  No,  my  brethren,  we  enter 
tain  of  YOU,  sentiment-  more  conformable  to 


THE    ECCLESIASTICAL    STATE.  305 

the  piety  in  which  you  have  been  educated,  and 
to  that  sincere  desire  of  learning-  the  will  of  God 
in  your  regard,  which  has  assembled  you  in 
this  place  :  Confidimus  de  vobis  meliora  et  vici- 
niora  saluti*  Profit  then  of  these  days  of  re 
treat  and  probation,  to  beg-  of  the  Father  of 
lights  to  make  known  to  you  the  way,  in  which., 
it  is  his  holy  will,  that  you  should  walk.  Say 
often  to  him  with  the  humility  of  Moses  :  Send, 
O  Lord,  whom  thou  wilt  send  :f  do  not  permit 
us  to  be  of  the  number  of  those  unhappy  pro 
phets,  who  spoke  in  thy  name  without  being- 
sent  by  thee  :£  who  said,  the  Lord  hath  sent  us, 
when  the  Lord  had  not  sent  them.  Do  thou 
thyself  render  us  worthy  of  thy  choice  :  form  in 
our  souls  all  those  virtues  which  thou  requires!, 
in  those  who  are  consecrated  to  thy  ministry. 
Do  thou  thyself,  O  great  God,  turn  us  away 
from  thy  prieothood;  let  thy  hand  repel  us  from 
thy  altar,  if  it  be  not  thy  will  that  conducts  us 
to  it:  rather  let  fire  come  forth,  as  formerly, 
from  thy  sanctuary,  to  drive  us  from  its  entrance 
for  ever,  than  that  we  should  present  ourselves 
against  thy  commands,  to  offer  thee  a  profane 
incense,  which  thou  dost  not  require,  and  which 


*  Hebrews,  c.  fi.  v.  9.          f  Exodus,  c.  iv.  v.  13. 

I  Jeremiah,  c.  xxiii.  v.  32.  Ezekiel.  c.  xii.  v.  6, 

w 


306  ON    THE    VOCATION    &C. 

thou  wilt  not  receive.  Make  known  to  us,  thy 
holy  will  in  our  regard,  and  do  thou  thyself  ac 
complish  it  upon  us.  Yes.,  O  Lord,  happy  is  he 
whom  thou  hast  chosen,  and  called  to  thyself; 
he  shall  dwell  in  thy  everlasting  tabernacles  : 
Bcatus  quern  elegisti  ct  assumpsisti :  inhabitabit 
in  atr'ds  luis.*  The  cedars  of  Lebanon,  which 
thou  hast  planted,  shall  be  saturated  with  the  dew 
of  heaven,  and  the  waters  of  grace :  they  shall 
fear  neither  the  scorching  heat  of  the  sun,  nor 
the  raging  fury  of  the  storm  or  of  the  tempest: 
Saturabuntnr  Ugna  campi,  ct  cedri  Libani  quas 
plantavit.^  But  woe  to  every  plant,  which  thou 
hast  not  planted  :  it  can  expect  no  other  lot, 
than  to  be  plucked  up  and  cast  into  the  fire. 
May  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  grant,  that  we,  my 
brethren,  may  not  be  of  this  number. — Amen. 

*  Psalm.  64.  v.  5.         f  Psalm.  103.  v.  16. 


A  DISCOURSE: 


ON     THE 


USE  OF  ECCLESIASTICAL  REVENUES, 


Sed   quia  haec  locutus  sum  vobis,  tristitia  implevit 
cor  vestrum. 

But  Itecausc  I  have  spoken  these  things  to  youy  sorrow 
hath  filled  your  heart. 

JOHN.  chap.  xv.  \er.  6. 


ALTHOUGH  the  attraction  of  grace  had  the  first 
and  principal  share,  in  the  resolution  taken  by 
the  Apostles,  of  abandoning*  their  bark  and  their 
nets  to  follow  Christ,,  nevertheless,  this  conduct 
was  not,  perhaps,  at  first  so  pure  as  to  exclude 
certain  views  of  self  interest,  and  certain  eaith- 
ly  and  human  motives,  which  the  instructions 
of  the  Redeemer,  and  above  all,  the  effusion  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  completely  purified  in  the  se 
quel.  Educated  in  the  prejudices  of  the  syna,- 


308  ON    THE    USE    OF 

gogue,  they  looked  for  the  temporal  glory  of 
the  Messiah  ;  they  expected  that  he  would  re 
establish  the  kingdom  of  Israel  in  more  than  its 
ancient  magnificence,  and  fondly  promised  them 
selves,  that  he  would  make  them  sit  in  the 
twelve  first  places  of  this  splendid  but  imagi 
nary  empire. 

So  when  Christ  to  disabuse  them  of  so  dan 
gerous  an  error,  declares  to  them,  this  day,  that 
in  following  him,  they  have  nothing  to  expect 
but  persecution  and  opprobrium :  that  they  shall 
lead  a  life  of  poverty,  hardship  and  sulVering  ; 
that  their  only  support  will  be  what  men  shall 
give  them,  in  his  name  :  when  in  aggravation 
of  these  melancholy  disclosures,  he  enjoins  them 
to  banish  all  solicitude  regarding  the  necessi 
ties  of  life  ;  not  to  have  two  coats  in  their  jour- 
nies,  nor  treasure  up  riches  upon  earth,  this 
grievous  disappointment  of  their  hopes,  over 
whelms  them  with  sorrow  and  consternation,  and 
the  profound  sadness  of  their  heart  renders  it 
self  visible  on  their  very  countenance  :  Scd  quia 
hcec  locutus  sum  vobis,  tristitia  implcvit  cor  vcs- 
trum. 

Would  I  be  departing  far  from  the  gospel  of 
this  day,  my  brethren,  if  I  were  to  tell  you,  that 
we  have  succeeded  in  this  particular,  to  the  er- 


ECCLESIASTICAL    REVENUES.  309 

ror,  as  well  as  to  the  ministry ^  of  the  disciples 
of  Jesus  Christ ;  and  that  what  the  church  di 
rects  us  to  read,  to  day,  of  their  weakness  on  this 
point,  is  precisely  the  history  of  our  own  mis 
takes  and  of  our  own  weakness.  1  will  suppose 
that  the  grace  of  God  has  guided  our  vocation 
like  that  of  the  disciples  :  is  it  not  true,  never 
theless,  that  in  renouncing-  the  age  to  follow 
him,  we  have  like  them,  figured  him  to  our 
selves  as  a  glorious  Messiah,  and  imagined  that 
his  kingdom  was  of  this  world?  Is  it  not  true 
that  when  it  was  announced  to  us,  on  his  part, 
that  poverty  was  to  be  our  glory,  the  cross  our 
treasure,  labors  our  portion,  contempt  and  per 
secution  our  only  recompence ;  is  it  not  true  that 
these  maxims,  so  disconsolate,  yet  so  divine, 
and  so  worthy  of  our  vocation,  have  found  in 
us  prejudices  hard  to  be  combated,  and  plunged 
our  hearts  in  dejection  and  sorrow?  Sed  quid 
hcec  locutus  sum  ro&*s,  tristitia  implevit  cor 
vestrum. 

We  generally  represent  the  ministry  to  our 
selves,  as  a  state  of  luxury  and  repose  ;  and  it 
has  been  already  proved  to  you  that  it  wras  a 
state  of  labor  and  solicitude:*  we  represent  it 

*  Discourse  on  zeal  against  scandals. 


310  ON   THE   USE   OF 

to  ourselves  as  a  station  of  glory  and  pre-emi 
nence  ;  and  it  has  been  already  shewn  you,  that 
it  was  a  real  servitude  and  a  continual  exercise 
of  humiliation  :*  in  fine,  \ve  regard  it  as  an  in 
heritance  where  more  abundant  comforts  and 
greater  riches  are  to  be  found  than  in  the  world; 
and  I  am  this  day  to  demonstrate  to  you,  that 
poverty  is  the  most  essential  character  of  our 
ministry ;  that  the  sacred  revenues  which  \ve  en 
joy,  ought  to  be  employed  only  in  religious 
uses ;  and  that  the  treasures  of  the  temple,  be^ 
ing  the  fruit  of  the  cross,  and  the  price  of  the 
Redeemer's  blood,  far  from  supplying  the  lavish 
expenses  of  luxury  and  the  prodigal  superflui 
ties  of  vanity  and  elVeminacy,  should  be  taxed 
only  for  our  necessary  wants,  should  furnish  no 
more  than  the  daily  bread  of  labor,  of  bitter 
ness  and  sorrow  :  in  a  word,  you  have  been  ful 
ly  instructed  in  the  manner  in  which  you  ought 
to  enter  on  a  living  ;  and  I  am  now  to  point 
out  to  you,  the  manner  of  life  which  you  ought 
to  lead  in  it,  and  the  use  which  you  ought  to 
make  of  its  revenues. 

Now,  for  the  success  of  this  design,  it  is  ne 
cessary  to  go  back  to  the  true  source  of  the 

*  Discourse  on  the  ambition  of  the  Clergy. 


ECCLESIASTICAL    REVENUES,,  311 

evil  to  be  avoided.  It  has  always  appeared  to 
me,,  that  mistake  in  this  matter  arose  from  one 
or  other  of  three  different  errors  :  a  fundamental 
error,,  if  I  may  so  speak ;  an  error  of  circum 
stances  ;  and  an  error  of  precautions.  The  fun 
damental  error  causes  us  to  mistake  the  very  na 
ture  of  ecclesiastical  goods,  and  to  regard  our 
selves  as  the  proprietors  of  a  revenue  of  which 
we  have  but  the  simple  dispensation  :  the  error 
of  circumstances,  recognises  indeed,  that  we  are 
but  the  dispensers  of  the  goods  confided  to  us, 
but  at  the  same  time,  causes  us  to  deceive  our 
selves,  in  reference  to  the  dignities  to  which  we 
are  raised,  to  the  name  which  we  bear,  to  the 
abundant  income  which  we  possess,  to  the  pro 
fuse  expenditure  which  we  deem  either  necessary 
or  becoming  :  in  fine,  the  error  of  precautions, 
which  disabused  of  the  two  preceding,  turns  our 
attention  to  the  uncertainty  of  the  future  to  the 
various  accidents  of  life,  to  unexpected  expenses, 
and  makes  us  find  in  those  contingencies,  an 
occasion  of  avarice,  and  a  pretext  for  treasur 
ing  up  gold,  contrary  to  all  the  laws  of  charity 
and  all  the  rules  of  the  church. 

My  design,  this  day,  is  to  oppose  to  those 
three  errors,  three  capital  truths,  which  seem 
to  me  to  set  this  subject  in  its  true  light,  and 


,31  "2  ON   THE    USE   OF 

to  include  those  just  and  prudent  rules  which 
we  ought  to  propose  to  ourselves,  in  the  use  of 
ecclesiastical  revenues. 

The  wealth  of  the  church  is  a  religious  de- 
posite,  a  sacred  alms  :  we  are  then  but  the  de 
positaries  and  the  dispensers  of  it  :  this  first 
truth,  I  oppose  to  the  first  or  fundamental 
error. 

If  the  church  permits  us  to  use  her  goods,  it 
is  because  she  supposes  us,  poor;  our  indigence 
and  our  labor  alone  authorize  us  to  partake  of 
them  ;  and  we  have  no  real  title  to  them  but  in 
proportion  as  we  have  real  wants.  This  second 
truth  developes  and  condemns  the  error  of  cir 
cumstances. 

Those  sacred  goods  being  given  to  us  onl\ 
because  we  are  poor,  they  ought  still  in  pass 
ing  through  our  hands,  to  leave  us  always  our 
character  of  poverty  ;  and  never,  by  being  re 
served  and  amassed,  monstrously  place  us  in  a 
state  of  certain  opulence  for  the  future.  This 
third  truth  combats  the  error  of  precautions. 

Let  me  repeat  these  truths,  for  the  impor 
tance  of  the  subject  demands  it :  you  regard  the 
revenues  of  the  church  as  your  own  property  ; 
I  shall  prove  that  you  are  but  the  stewards  of 
them  :  you  look  upon  them  as  resources  for  the 


ECCLESIASTICAL   REVENUES.  313 

support  of  the  vain  pomp  of  a  name  and  of 
birth  ;  I  shall  show  you,  that  they  are  given  to 
you  only  to  support  your  indigence  and  supply 
your  wants  :  you  amass  them,  in  order  to  pro 
vide  against  the  accidents  of  life ;  and  you  shall 
see,  that  all  foresight  which  prefers  distant  and 
imaginary  necessities  to  the  real  and  present  ne 
cessities  of  the  poor,  is  inhumanity  and  injus 
tice.  Do  thou,  O  my  God,  bless  this  instruction 
and  a-ive  to  those  who  hear  me,  attentive  ears 

o 

and  a  docile  heart. 

FIRST    REFLECTION. 

The  error  by  which  we  mistake  the  nature 
of  goods  consecrated  to  the  Lord  and  regard 
them  as  our  own  possession  and  inheritance, 
is  of  the  number  of  those,  which  to  propound 
and  unfold,  is  to  confute. 

For,  in  the  first  place,  though  I  were  to  sup 
pose  with  you,  that  goods  consecrated  to  God, 
had  nothing  to  distinguish  them  from  ordinary 
property,  and  that  you  were  the  masters  and 
proprietors  of  them,  as  you  are  of  those  goods 
which  you  receive  by  succession  from  your  an 
cestors,  it  would  still  be  always  certain,  that 
you  received  them  from  God  alone ;  that  they 
belong  to  him  as  first  and  Sovereign  Lord ;  that 


ON    THE    USE    OF 

although  he  may  have  left  to  you  the  use  of  them, 
he  has  neither  alienated  their  dominion  nor  pro 
prietorship,  since  he  can  deprive  you  of  them 
by  death,  by  the  injustice  of  men,  by  a  thou 
sand  accidents  which  you  cannot  foresee,  and 
remove  you  from  the  world,  naked,  as  you  en 
tered  it:  that  thus,  in  reality,  you  are  but  the 
depositary  of  them  ;  you  have  to  these  goods, 
merely  a  subordinate  right,  which  has  its  li 
mits,  its  restrictions,  its  reservations,  beyond 
which  you  cannot  go  without  usurpation  and  in 
gratitude.  Now  from  this  single  principle,  you 
conclude  at  once,  that  God  being  the  sole  Lord 
of  those  goods  which  you  receive  from  your  fa 
thers,  you  ought  to  use  them  only  according  to 
the  plan  and  the  views  of  the  master  who  lias 
entrusted  them  to  you ;  that  you  are  obliged  U> 
enter  into  the  designs  of  his  providence,  that  is  to 
say,  to  use  them  solely  for  his  glory,  for  your 
own  sanctification,  and  for  the  relief  of  your  bre- 
tbren.  For,  in  pouring  out  temporal  favors  upon 
you,  he  could  have  had  no  other  intention  than 
that  you  should  find  in  them,  the  means  of  sal 
vation.  All  employment  of  earthly  goods,  which 
conduces  not  to  this  end,  is  then  an  abuse  of  the 
gifts  of  God,  and  a  dissipation  of  the  property  of 
another,  for  which  we  shall  render  a  strict  ac- 


ECCLESIASTICAL   REVENUES.  315 

count  Thus  although  you  had  a  right  to  use 
the  revenues  of  the  church,  like  the  inheritance 
of  your  fathers,  judge  whether  that  right  would 
be  unlimited,  whether  you  would  be  the  abso 
lute  master  of  them,  and  whether  your  caprice 
alone  should  regulate  the  use  of  the  benefits  of 
the  Lord. 

But  in  the  second  place,  although  all  earth 
ly  goods  are  his,  there  are  some,  which  by  be 
ing  consecrated  to  him,  are  his  by  a  double  title, 
both  because  they  have  descended  from  him, 
and  because  they  are  the  vows  and  the  homage 
of  the  faith  and  of  the  piety  of  his  people  : 
there  are  some  over  which  he  reserves  to  him 
self  a  more  absolute  right,  which  form,  as  it 
were,  his  portion  and  his  inheritance,  and  which 
are  sanctified,  separated  from  common  uses,  and 
by  their  consecration  exclusively  destined  to  his 
service  and  worship.  Now  these  are  what  we 
call  ecclesiastical  revenues ;  and  such  are  the 
goods  of  which  you  pretend  to  be  the  masters, 
and  to  have  the  right  of  using  at  your  pleasure. 
Let  us  ascend  to  the  source,  and  the  better  to 
understand  their  nature,  let  us  seek  it  in  their 


origin. 


You  are  not  ignorant  that  the  Apostles  were, 
in  the  beginning  the  depositaries  of  all  the  goods 


316 


ON    THE   USE    OF 


of  the  faithful.  Scarcely  were  they  associated 
by  baptism  to  the  assembly  of  the  Saints,  when 
as  though  they  had  no  other  concern  than  to 
preserve  the  riches  and  grace  of  the  spirit,  which 
they  had  received,  each  hastened  to  lay  at  the 
feet  of  the  disciples,  the  homage  of  his  charity, 
and  to  discharge  himself,  by  a  voluntary  sacri 
fice,  of  a  remnant  of  servitude,  that  he  might 
enjoy  without  alloy  or  interruption,  the  liberty 
of  the  children  of  God.  Alas!  it  was  then  ima 
gined  that  all  things  ought  to  be  in  common, 
among  those  who  were  to  have  but  one  heart 
and  one  soul ;  who  l<ad  the  same  faith,  the  same 
hope,  the  same  Father  and  a  common  right  to 
the  same  inheritance ;  who  were  to  use  the  world 
as  though  they  used  it  not,  and  to  possess  all 
things  as  though  they  possessed  nothing;  and 
that  the  equal  distribution  of  the  favors  of  hea 
ven  should  destroy  all  distinction  as  to  the  goods 
of  the  earth. 

The  goods  thus  confided  to  the  disciples  were 
distributed  without  delay,  to  the  faithful,  and 
the  Apostles  who  made  the  distribution,  assumed 
no  other  right  than  that  of  estimating  the  ne 
cessities,  and  apportioning  the  share,  of  each. 
Thus  we  see  that  Peter  although  the  principal 
keeper  of  those  pious  deposites,  frankly  tells  the 


ECCLESIASTICAL   REVENUES.  317 

lame  man  at  the  gate  of  the  temple,  that  he  has 
neither  gold  nor  silver:  Argentum  ct  aurum 
non  est  mihi;*  and  Saint  Luke  relates  this  re 
ply  and  the  miraculous  cure  of  the  cripple,  imme 
diately  after  having  informed  us  that  all  the  sub 
stance  of  the  faithful  was  entrusted  to  the  care 
and  disbursement  of  the  Apostles  ;  as  if  to  in 
dicate  to  us,  that  those  pious  funds  of  which  they 
were  the  dispensers,  not  only  had  not  enriched 
them,  but  had  not  even  lifted  them  above  the 
poverty  of  their  former  condition. 

The  number  of  the  faithful  increasing,  this 
renunciation  and  community  of  property  was 
no  longer  possible:  the  dispensation  of  tempo 
ral  goods  alone  would  have  entirely  occupied 
those  pastors  who  were  destined  to  dispense  the 
mysteries  of  God,  and  to  give  themselves  to 
prayer  and  the  ministry  of  the  word.  The  faith 
ful  contented  themselves  with  carrying  to  the 
foot  of  the  altar,  a  portion  of  their  substance, 
to  offer  it  to  the  Lord  as  a  sacred  first  fruits,  as 
a  sacrifice  of  justice  and  charity,  in  order  that 
the  ministers  of  the  altar  might  live  by  the  altar; 
that  the  decency  of  religious  worship  might  be 
maintained,  and  that  the  necessities  of  the  flock, 

*  Acts,  c,  iii.  v.  6. 


318  ON   THE   USE    *>F 

best  known  to  the  pastor,  might  be  more  surely 
relieved  through  his  ministry.  The  faith  of 
those  happy  times  was  so  active,  their  charity 
so  abundant,  that,  as  we  read  in  Prudentius,  their 
conduct  attracted  the  notice  and  the  animadver 
sion  of  the  Pagans,  who  reproached  them  that 
they  found  a  cruel  piety  in  despoiling  their  very 
children  of  their  riches,  to  squander  on  the 
temples  and  on  the  clergy.  Hac  occluduntur, 
said  they,  abditis  Ecclesiarum  in  angitlis,  ct 
summa  pietas  crcditur  nudarc  duices  libcros.* 

The  generosity  of  princes  in  process  of  time, 
increased  those  pious  funds;  and  as  the  church 
saw  splendor  and  magnificence  enter  with  the 
Cesars,  into  her  worship,  before,  so  unostenta 
tious  and  obscure,  she  formed  of  the  offerings 
of  the  faithful  and  of  the  pious  largesses  of  so 
vereigns,  a  treasure  of  charity,  in  which  the  poor 
found  the  relief  of  their  daily  necessities,  and 
the  church,  the  means,  of  defraying  the  expen 
sive  erection  of  her  temples,  the  decoration  of 
her  altars  and  the  support  of  her  ministers. 

Until  that  time,  the  Bishop  had  been  charged 
with  the  dispensation  of  all  the  revenues  of  the 
sanctuary  :  he  was  properly  the  only  beneficed 

*  Saint  Prudentius, 


ECCLESIASTICAL    REVENUES.  319 

ecclesiastic  of  his  church,  that  is,  the  sole  dis 
penser  of  the  goods  which  the  piety  of  the  faith 
ful  had  consecrated  to  the  service  of  religion  : 
he  alone  by  the  ministry  of  his  deacon,  furnish 
ed  the  maintenance  of  virgins,  of  widows,  of 
orphans,  of  confessors ;  relieved  the  necessities 
of  the  rest  of  the  faithful,  and  it  was,  upon  him 
alone,  that  the  subaltern  ministers  depended  for 
subsistence. 

I  know  that  subsequently,  either  the  avarice 
of  pastors  and  the  unfaithfulness  of  their  dispen 
sation,  or  the  increase  of  the  sacred  revenues, 
or  the  multitude  of  the  clergy,  compelled  the 
church  to  make  a  division.  But  these  goods 
did  not  change  their  nature,  by  being  divided ; 
the  condition  of  the  parts  was  the  same,  as  of 
the  principal;  each  one  taking  to  himself  a  por 
tion  of  the  inheritance  of  Jesus  Christ,  took  al 
so  upon  himself,  a  part  of  the  obligations  which 
were  inseparable  from  it:  in  a  word,  the  poor 
had  a  greater  number  of  stewards,  but  the  goods 
of  the  church  had  not  therefore  more  masters. 

This  doctrine  and  this  tradition  being  sup 
posed,  behold  the  reflections,  which  naturally 
spring  from  it.  It  is  certain  that  the  revenues 
of  the  church  are  pious  gifts  and  alms :  I  ad 
mit  that  in  confiding  them  to  us,  the  faithful 


320  ON   THE   USE    OF 

intended  to  support  our  toils,  and  to  return,  as 
Saint"  Paul  says,*  temporal  blessings  for  the  spi 
ritual  ones  which  they  had  received  from  us : 
I  admit  moreover  that  they  owed  this  just  re 
tribution  to  our  ministry,  for  no  one  combats 
at  his  own  expense,  according  to  the  language 
of  the  same  Apostle. f 

But,  in  the  first  place,  our  right  is  founded 
on  our  wants  alone  :  our  necessities  constitute 
our  whole  tide.  It  was  because  the  tribe  of 
Levi  did  not  share  in  the  possession  of  the  pro 
mised  land  with  the  other  tribes,  that  they  were 
obliged  to  contribute  to  its  support.  If  provi 
dence  has  otherwise  supplied  us  with  temporal 
fortune,  it  is  against  natural  equity,  says  Julian 
Pomerus,  to  convert  the  pious  alms  entrusted  to 
us,  to  our  own  use  :  it  is  a  usurpation  of  the 
property  and  of  the  right  of  the  unfortunate  :  we 
rank  first  among  the  poor  ;  but  we  are  nothing 
more. 

In  the  second  place,  those  sacred  revenues 
are  an  alms,  to  which  whoever  is  not  poor,  can 
have  no  claim  :  but  they  are  also  a  salary  which, 
whoever  does  not  labour  ought  not  to  use  or 
enjoy ;  otherwise  the  recompence  of  the  Apos- 

*  1.  Cor.  c.  ix.  tlbicl. 


ECCLESIASTICAL    REVENUES.  321 

tleship,  would  be  changed  into  an  occasion  of 
indulgence,  and  the  pay  and  spoils  of  the  holy 
warfare  would  be  shared  with  those,,  who  had 
not  borne  the  fatigues  and  perils  of  the  con 
flict.  For,  seriously,  my  brethren,  what  could 
have  been  the  view  of  the  faithful  who  des 
poiled  themselves  at  the  foot  of  the  altar,  but 
the  advantage  of  the  church  ?  Did  they  not 
imagine  that  by  increasing  her  temporal  posses 
sions,  they  were  enlarging  her  spiritual  kingdom,, 
multiplying  the  faithful,  by  multiplying  her  mi 
nisters  ;  extending  the  work  of  the  gospel  and 
facilitating  new  conquests,  by  rendering  her 
more  powerful?  Now  1  ask  you  what  benefit 
can  accrue  to  the  church,  from  supporting  an  idle 
and  worthless  pastor  ?  what  new  glory  can  she 
acquire,  by  supplying  the  means  of  indulgence,, 
indolence,  sensuality,  and  pleasure,  to  a  lazy  and, 
oftentimes,  dissolute  Monk  or  Priest?  is  not  this 
rather  her  shame  and  opprobrium?  Do  you,  your 
selves,  judge  whether  the  pious  founders  who 
enriched  her,  wished  to  dishonour  her,  or  to  fa 
vour  the  luxury  and  idleness  of  her  ministers,  by 
loading  her  with  their  benefits.  Yet  we  can 
have  no  other  title  to  sacred  goods  than  that 
which  we  have  received  from  the  faithful,  who 
have  placed  them  in  our  hands.  These  pious  do- 

x 


322  ON    THE    USE    OF 

nations  include  a  kind  of  holy  treaty  between 
them  and  us ;  a  treaty  which  has  conditions  and 
reservations,  inseparably  attached  to  the  very 
nature  of  the  goods  which  they  have  left  us.  If 
we  violate  the  conditions  of  this  treaty,  we  for 
feit  the  right  which  we  had,  to  these  goods,  in 
virtue  of  so  holy  and  sacred  a  covenant.  Now 
is  it  not  true,  that  if  they  have  preferred  us  to 
their  relatives  and  friends,  it  was  solely  through 
a  sentiment  of  religion  ;  merely  to  secure  in  our 
hands,  the  patrimony  of  the  poor,  which  would 
have  been  unsafe  amidst  the  revolutions  and  the 
cupidity  of  families.  Why,  in  effect,  deprive 
their  relatives  of  a  portion  of  their  wealth,  if  it 
had  been  their  intention  to  bestow  on  us  a  mere 
unconditional  gift ;  or  why  impoverish  them, 
without  any  other  object  than  to  enrich  us,  with 
their  spoils?  Alas!  these  pious  souls  enjoy  in 
heaven,  the  full  fruit  of  their  generous  offer 
ings  :  in  return  for  the  transitory  goods  which 
they  so  liberally  consecrated,  they  find  in  the 
bosom  of  God  an  eternal  and  inexhaustible  trea 
sure,  which  the  malice  of  men  can  no  longer 
snatch  from  them  ;  which  neither  the  rust  nor 
the  moth  can  corrupt.  But  if  they  could  ap 
pear  in  the  midst  of  us  again,  and  see  the  use 
which  the  greater  part  of  ministers  make  of  the 


ECCLESIASTICAL   REVENUES.  323 

goods  which  they  had  mancipated  to  our  tem 
ples  ;  if  they  could  come  forth  from  their  tombs 
and  behold  the  very  temples,  in  which  they  re 
pose,  whose  altars  they  had  adorned  with  so  much 
magnificence,  and  in  which  they  had  flattered 
themselves  that  fervent  prayers  and  sacrifices  of 
expiation  would  be  incessantly  offered  up  to  the 
Lord  of  life  and  death;  if  they  could  behold 
those  temples  abandoned  and  almost  in  ruins  ; 
those  altars  which  they  had  erected  with  so  much 
care,  neglected  and  unworthy  to  receive  the  sa 
cred  offerings  and  serve  for  the  ministry  of  the 
unbloody  sacrifice  ;  if  they  could  see,  if  they 
could  behold  the  ministers  charged  with  these 
prayers  and  with  the  care  of  these  temples, 
scarcely  heeding  or  recognising  them,  and  squan 
dering  elsewhere,  in  idleness,  in  high-living  and 
in  pleasures,  funds  destined  for  so  many  pious 
uses ;  were  they  to  behold  the^e  abuses  and  these 
scandals,  would  they  not  cry  out  and  demand 
justice  against  us  ?  would  they  not  insist  on 
resuming  the  possession  of  funds,  which  they 
imagined  they  had  consecrated  to  religion  and 
to  piety,  and  which  they  would  see  dissipated 
in  worldly,  profane  and  vicious  uses?  Animated 
with  the  same  zeal  which  rendered  them  such 
il-lustrious  benefactors  to  the  church,  would  they 


•>-*  ON    THE   USE    OF 

not,  like  the  Redeemer,  drive  from  the  tem 
ples  which  they  once  raised  and  endowed  with 
such  splendid  generosity,  those  idle  and  unpro 
fitable  pastors,  who  dishonour  them  by  their 
morals  and  their  worthlessness,  and  who  turn 
those  houses  of  prayer  into  the  asylums  of  their 
pomp,  their  pride,  their  sensuality  and  their  la* 
ziness ? 

And  hence  arises  a  second  reflection.  The 
revenues  of  the  church,  being  offerings  made  to 
the  altar,  and  goods  consecrated  to  God,  you 
must  then,  says  the  first  council  of  Milan,  em-, 
ploy  them  only  in  holy  and  religious  uses  : 
Earn  naturam  ct  conditionem  consecuti  sunt,  ut 
in  alium  quam  sacrum  et  pium  uswn,  coruin 
jructus  convcrti  nejas  cssct.  You  owe  them 
the  same  respect,  says  an  ancient  author,  as  to 
the  sacred  vases,  the  ornaments  used  at  the  al 
tar,  or  the  other  gifts  which  the  piety  of  the 
people  has  devoted  in  our  churches.  I  do  not 
say  that,  we  cannot  without  sacrilege,  render 
them  subservient  to  iniquity,  or  change  the 
fruits  of  piety  and  justice,  into  instruments  of 
crime ;  no,  that  being  common  to  other  goods, 
is  not  peculiar  to  them.  But  I  say,  that  after 
their  consecration,  you  can  no  longer  employ 
them  in  worldly,  indifferent  and  unprofitable 


ECCLESIASTICAL   REVENUES.  325 

uses  :  I  say,  that  uses  which  may  be  innocent 
or  indifferent,  when  there  is  question  of  ordi 
nary  goods,  become  so  many  sacrileges  when 
those  goods  are  holy  ;  it  is  the  impious  profa 
nation  of  the  prince  of  Babylon,  who  used  the 
vessels  of  the  temple  at  the  royal  table,  in  revel 
ry  and  banqueting  :  I  say,  that  we  ought  to 
touch  them  with  a  kind  of  religious  awe  ;  to 
look  upon  them  as  yet  wet  with  the  tears  of  the 
faithful,  of  those  pious  penitents,  who  offered 
them  as  the  ransom  of  their  sins  ;  embalmed,  as 
it  were,  in  their  vows  and  their  sighs  ;  we  ought 
to  consider  them  as  marked  with  the  blood  of 
Jesus  Christ,  and  by  a  maxim  altogether  diffe 
rent  from  that  of  the  Pontiffs  and  Doctors  of 
the  law,  employ  them  in  what  regards  the  tem 
ple  alone,  because  they  are  the  price  of  inno 
cent  blood. 

From  the  two  foregoing  reflections  there 
arises  this  third,  that  since  our  controul  over 
ecclesiastical  revenues,  is  a  mere  stewardship  ; 
since  they  are,  as  it  were,  public  funds,  des 
tined  for  the  relief  of  public  calamities ;  since 
our  wants,  estimated  according  to  religion,  be 
ing  once  satisfied,  what  remains  is  no  longer 
ours,  but  merely  the  property  of  another,  depo 
sited  in  our  hands ;  it  follows  that  our  adminis- 


326  ON    THE    USE   OF 

iration  of  them,  is  rather  a  burden  than  a  be 
nefit  ;  that  the  more  the  amount  exceeds  our 
necessities,  the  more  it  should  alarm  our  faith  ; 
that  the  difference  between  a  rich  and  a  poor 
living,  is,  that  the  possessor  of  the  former  has 
more  of  the  goods  of  others  to  administer  and 
distribute  ;  that  his  stewardship  is  more  trouble 
some  and  more  dangerous  without  being  more 
lucrative;  in  a  word,  that  his  temptations  and 
perils  are  greater,  without  any  increase  of  ad 
vantage.  He  is  entrusted  with  larger  property, 
but  he  is  not  therefore  the  richer  :  qui  mullum 
non  abunda-cit  :*  he  has  merely  the  opportunity 
of  turning  it  to  a  worse  use  ;  for  how  difficult 
is  it  to  have  extensive  wealth  at  our  disposal, 
wealth  for  the  possession  or  employment  of 
which,  no  man  can  call  us  to  an  account,  and 
not  regard  it  as  our  own,  and  not  detain  of  it 
for  our  necessities,  a  portion  far  different  from 
that  which  the  church  herself  would  have  award 
ed,  in  those  days,  when,  as  the  Apostle  assures  us, 
it  was  sufficient  for  the  ministers  of  the  gospel  to 
be  provided  with  a  frugal  maintenance  and  mo- 

*Inpra?senti  tempore,  vestra  abundnntia  illoruin 
inopiam  suppleat :  ut  et  illorum  abundantia  vestrye 
inopiae  sit  supplemcntum,  ut  fiat  aequalitas,  sicut 
scriptum  est  :  Qui  multum  non  abuiulavit :  et  qui 
modicum,  non  minoravit. — 2.  Cor.  c.  viii.  \T.  14.  15. 


ECCLESIASTICAL   REVENUES.  527 

dest  vesture  :   Ilabentes  autem  alimenta,  et  qui- 
bus  tegamur,  his  contenti  simus.* 

In  line,,  the  last  reflection  is,  that  those  max 
ims,,   which  appear  so   harsh,   so  unreasonable, 
which  are  so  universal!}'  violated,  and  which  the 
corruption  of  custom  and  the  Jaxness  of  the  clergy 
seem  to  have  almost  entirely  abolished,  are,  not 
withstanding  no  more  than  a  simple  exposition 
of  the  doctrine  of  the  Saints ;  that  the  language 
which  I  have   used,    is  the   language  of  every 
age,  and  still,  at  this  day,  the  language  of  the 
church,  and  of  all  the  expounders  of  her  doer 
trine;    that   the  most    indulgent   authors,    those 
who  had  extenuated  every  other  maxim  of  mo 
rality,  and  introduced  a  new  and  unknown  lan 
guage  into  the  question  of  our  duties,  have  res 
pected  this,  and  have   treated  it   only  as  it  was 
accustomed  to  be  treated,   in  the  purest  ages  of 
the  church.     The  obligation   then  must  be  tru 
ly  inviolable,  since  the  relaxation  which  has  dis 
covered    plausible  reasons    for   softening   down 
every  other  article,  which  puts  a  restraint  upon 
the  passions,  has  left  to  this,  all  its  severity  and 
all  its  force. 

I  have  thrown  out  these  reflections  without 
art,  and  without  giving  them   the  regular  form 

*1.  Timothy,  c.  vi.  v.  8, 


328  ON    THE    USE    OF 

of  an  address :  there  are  certain  truths  which 
are  most  forcible  when  simply  detailed.  I  have 
cited  but  little,  because  there  was  too  much  to 
be  quoted.  Read,  yourselves,,  the  regulations 
of  the  canons  and  the  works  of  the  Saints,  and 
you  will  find  a  constant  tradition  of  this  doc 
trine  from  the  days  of  the  Apostles,  to  our  own  : 
you  will  find  even  under  the  Jewish  law,  that 
when  the  profane  and  rapacious  Heliodorus  at 
tempted  to  plunder  the  treasures  of  the  temple, 
the  holy  Pontiff'  Onias,  who  shewed  them,  de 
clared  that  they  were  sacred  deposites,  and  pro 
visions  for  the  subsistence  of  the  fatherless  and 
the  widow :  Ostendit  deposita  esse  hac  et  vie- 
tualia  viduarum  et  pupillorum  :*  you  will  find 
that  the  Priests  of  the  very  Pagans,  regarded 
the  riches  of  their  temples,  as  consecrated  pro 
perty,  destined  to  be  a  resource  against  public 
calamities.  And  after  such  examples,  you  can 
be  no  longer  surprised  at  the  decree  of  one  of 
the  councils  of  Antioch,  that  a  Bishop  should 
have  the  administration  of  the  goods  of  the 
church,  solely  to  distribute  them  with  fidelity 
and  religion  to  the  poor:  Episcopus  habeat  EC- 
clesice  rerum  potestatem,  ut  eas  in  omnes  egcnos 

*  2.  Machab.  c.  iii.  v.  10. 


ECCLESIASTICAL    REVENUES. 

dispenset  cum  multa  cautione  et  timore  Dei : 
that  he  himself  should  share  in  them,  if  lie  were 
really  poor;  but  that  he  should  not  appropriate 
more  than  the  supply  of  his  necessary  expenses : 
Ipse  autem,  earum  sit  particeps,  si  tamen  indi- 
get,  ad  suas  necessarias  cxpcnsas.  This  single 
canon  embraces  the  three  principles.,  which  we 
have  been  endeavouring  to  establish ;  that  you 
are  but  the  stewards  of  the  goods  of  the  church  ; 
that  you  have  no  claim  to  share  in  them  but  in 
right  of  your  poverty  ;  and  that  it  is  your  real 
necessities  alone  that  should  regulate  your  ap 
plication  of  them  to  yourself. 

But  all  are  agreed,  you  will  say,,  on  the  prin 
ciple  of  this  doctrine:  nobody  has  ever  imagined 
lhat  the  clergy  were  the  absolute  masters  of  the 
goods  entrusted  to  them,  by  the  church  :  this  is 
an  error  into  which  few  fall  ;  but  in  the  actual 
disposal  of  them,  is  it  not  prudence  that  should 
explain  these  rules  ?  are  there  not,  in  reference 
to  persons,  certain  distinctions  to  be  made,  in  the 
appropriation  of  sacred  revenues  ?  Every  cler 
gyman  is,  it  is  true,  but  a  mere  dispenser,  but 
must  all  prescribe  to  themselves,  the  same  limits? 
does  not  the  church  herself  wish  us  to  attend  to  a 
thousand  circumstances  ?  are  the  necessities  of 
the  simple  clergyman,  the  same  as  those  of  the 


330  ON    THE    USE    OF 

Pontiff?  and  does  not  the  rule,  applicable  to  our 
wants,  admit  as  many  exceptions  as  there  are 
ranks  in  the  church,  or  conditions  in  the  state  ? 
Behold  what  I  have  called  an  error  of  circum 
stances  :  all  are  agreed  as  to  the  rule,  but  many 
deceive  themselves  in  its  application :  we  have 
now  to  combat  this  abuse. 

SECOND    REFLECTION. 

Of  the  maxims  which  regulate  the  use  of  sa 
cred  revenues,  we  may  say,  as  of  those  which 
direct  the  chief  duties  of  a  Christian  life,  that 
though  all  are  agreed  on  the  principle,  there  is 
scarce  one  that  does  not  err,  and  that  does  not 
find  exceptions  to  mitigate  their  severity,  when 
there  is  question  of  applying  them  to  himself. 
The  rule  is  always  incontestable,  but  the  ap 
plication  in  reference  to  us,  is  always  doubt 
ful. 

Now  the  circumstances,  about  which  we  com 
monly  deceive  ourselves,  in  the  use  of  ecclesi 
astical  revenue,  may  be  reduced  to  four  :  first, 
the  dignities  to  which  we  are  raised  ;  secondly, 
to  the  splendor  and  the  distinction  of  the  name 
which  we  bear  ;  thirdly,  to  the  abundant  income 
which  we  enjoy;  and  lastly,  to  the  superfluities 
which  we  deem  necessary  to  our  comforts  or 


ECCLESIASTICAL   REVENUES.  331 

suitable  to  our  station.  I  ask,  merely  your  at 
tention,  for  on  this  occasion,  I  wish  to  speak 
to  you  in  simple  reflections,  and  to  confine  my 
instruction  to  the  exposition  of  your  undoubted 
dutVj  rather  than  inveigh  against  its  abuse. 

From  the  first  circumstance,  which  has  refe 
rence  to  the  dignity  to  which  we  are  raised, 
arises  the  most  general  illusion,  on  this  subject. 
But  in  order  to  separate  the  true  from  the  false, 
on  a  point  of  such  constant  practice,  I  readily 
admit  that  the  church  authorizes  external  distinc 
tions  ;  that  the  honor  of  the  ministry  demands  a 
certain  splendor  in  those  who  occupy  its  first 
places ;  that  the  ornaments  prescribed  by  the  law 
for  the  inferior  Levites,  did  not  equal  the  beauty 
and  magnificence  of  the  Pontiff's  robes,  nor  did 
their  portion  of  the  sacrifices  equal  that  reserved 
by  the  legislator,  to  the  descendants  of  Aaron  ; 
and  that  thus,  although  the  Apostles  and  first 
pastors  were  not  distinguished  from  the  inferior 
clergy,  except  by  a  more  severe,  a  poorer  and 
more  laborious  life,  and  although  the  church 
even  at  this  day  awards  her  honors  and  her  re- 
compences,  in  proportion  only  to  the  services 
that  are  rendered  to  her,  and  accords  distinc 
tions  and  privileges  to  her  chief  pastors  solely 
for  the  advancement  of  the  faith  and  the  exten- 


332  ON    THE    USE    OF 

sion  of  the  kingdom  of  Jesus  Christ  upon  earth  ; 
it  is,  nevertheless,  true,  that  the  necessities  of 
her  ministers  increase  in  proportion  to  their 
rank,  and  that  what  might  be  esteemed  a  com 
petency  in  a  subaltern  situation,  does  not  suffice 
for  those  who  are  placed  in  the  highest  rank. 
This  I  admit ;  and  I  had  rather  grant  too  much 
and  not  push  the  rule  to  its  utmost  limit,  than* 
weaken  it,  as  always  happens,  by  urging  it  too 
far. 

But  in  the  first  place,  let  me  request  you  to 
remark,  that  the  honors  of  the  sanctuary  do  not 
follow  the  same  rule  as  the  dignities  of  the 
world.  The  latter  founded  upon  fear,  upon  the 
necessity  of  a  bridle  for  the  passions  of  men, 
and  upon  an  external  authority  which  must 
strike  and  impose  upon  the  eyes  and  the  senses, 
have  need  of  external  pomp  to  sustain  them. 
The  majesty  of  the  law  derives  almost  all  its 
force,,  from  the  majesty  of  the  sovereign  and  of 
fiis  ministers  :  parade  and  splendor  are  neces 
sary  to  render  those  titles,  which  elevate  men 
above  their  fellows,  respectable.  The  power  of 
sovereigns  comes  from  God  alone  :  but  it  is 
pride  that  has  invented  the  greater  part  of  those 
titles,  which  create  such  an  inequality  among 
their  subjects.  Thus  it  is  for  pride  to  uphold 


ECCLESIASTICAL   REVENUES.  333 

what  pride  alone  has  invented  ;  they  are  vain 
distinctions  which  must  be  encompassed  witli 
pageantry  and  magnificence,,  to  hide  their  no 
thing-ness  and  give  them  a  sort  of  reality.  But 
it  is  innocence,  sanctity,,  justice,  modesty,,  po 
verty,  zeal,  toil,,  which  constitute  the  splendor 
of  the  dignities  of  the  sanctuary  :  they  are 
founded  on  nothing  but  the  contempt  of  the 
world  and  of  all  that  sparkles  to  the  eye  of 
sense  ;  since  their  object  is  to  give  an  example 
of  this  contempt  to  the  faithful,  and  fill  their 
hearts  with  the  love  of  so  holy  a  sentiment. 
The  kings  of  the  nations  find  their  glory  in  do 
mination  and  pomp,  but  it  shall  not  be  so  among 
you,  says  Jesus  Christ:*  it  was  in  washing  the 
feet  of  his  disciples  and  commanding  them  to 
exercise  the  same  office  towards  their  inferiors, 
that  he  established  them  his  Apostles,  that  is, 
the  princes  and  rulers  of  his  kingdom.  Splen 
dor  is  not  the  state  of  the  church,  upon  earth.: 
she  is  here  a  stranger,  afflicted  for  the  absence  of 
her  spouse  ;  bewailing  the  scandals  that  disho 
nour  her,  the  persecutions  that  annoy  her,  the 
schisms  that  distract  her,  the  domestic  wounds 
that  pierce  her  with  a  sword  of  grief,  and  whilst 

*  Matthew,  c.  xx.  v.  23. 


334  ON   THE   USE   OF 

she  is  filled  with  bitterness  and  covered  with 
mourning-,  and  all  her  ways  are  sorrowful,  her 
ministers  ought  not  to  insult  her  distress,  by  a 
magni licence  so  unseasonable  and  so  alien  to 
her  spirit. 

This  is  what  I  might  have  at  first  remarked 
to  you  :  but  in  order  to  come  to  something:  more 
precise,  I  tell  you,  in  the  second  place,  that  if 
the  church  authorizes  some  external  distinctions 
in  her  ministers,  she  authorizes  those  solely, 
which  may  give  credit  and  weight  to  the  autho 
rity  of  the  holy  ministry  ;  that  is  to  say,  which 
may  facilitate  the  success  of  our  functions,  pre 
pare  the  minds  of  our  people  for  respect  and 
obedience,  give  efficacy  to  sacred  obligations  and 
cause  the  work  of  the  gospel  to  fructify  :  she 
authorizes  those  only  which  put  us  more  in  ti 
condition  to  maintain  discipline,  to  uphold  good 
order  and  a  religious  subordination  among  her 
ministers,  to  provide  for  the  necessities  of  the 
faithful,  to  render  the  example  of  our  modesty, 
our  frugality,  our  disinterestedness  and  our  cha 
rity,  the  more  striking  by  the  splendor  of  the 
distinctions  which  she  grants  us,  and  thus  to 
be  the  more  useful  in  proportion  to  our  greater 
elevation.  Whatever  does  not  conduce  to  this 
end,  is  foreign  to  the  views  and  the  intention* 


ECCLESIASTICAL    REVENUES.  335 

of  the  church:  all  that  tends  but  to  nourish 
complacency  and  pride  ;  to  secure,  to  us,  a  vain 
and  unmeaning  consideration  ;  to  make  us  ap 
pear  in  the  temple  of  the  living'  God,  like  the 
idols  of  the  gentiles,  which  owed  the  worship 
and  the  homage  of  the  people,  solely  to  the  gold 
and  the  vain  magnificence  with  which  they 
sparkled;  all  that  does  not  contribute  to  the  sal 
vation  of  souls,  to  the  edification  of  the  church 
and  the  progress  of  the  faith,  is  but  little  suited  to 
dignities  that  have  been  established  but  to  sanc 
tify  the  faithful :  it  is  for  us,  to  distinguish  be 
tween  what  the  glory  of  God  demands  and  what 
cupidity  inspires ;  not  to  confound  the  interests 
of  the  church,  with  the  cravings  of  our  vanity, 
nor  the  innocent  and  useful  splendor  of  a  sa 
cred  dignity,  with  the  gorgeous  pageantry  of  a 
place  in  the  world,  and  not  to  pretend  to  honour 
our  ministry  by  an  air  of  luxury  and  of  ostenta 
tion,  which  dishonours  the  church  that  confided  ii 
to  us,  and  which  draws  down  on  us,  not  the  res 
pect  and  veneration,  but  rather  the  contempt  and 
censure,  of  the  multitude. 

I  say,  in  the  third  place,  that  the  more  elevated 
you  are,  the  more  does  the  church  expect  that 
you  will  be  the  model  of  the  flock,  the  nearer 
should  your  virtues  approach  to  a  level  with  the 


336  ON   THE   USE   OP 

pre-eminence  of  the  place  which  you  occupy ; 
and  the  more,  says  the  council  of  Trent,*  ought 
you  to  regulate  your  exterior  conduct  in  a  man 
ner  that  others  may  find  in  your  morals.,  rules 
of  temperance,  of  moderation,  of  rectitude  and 
of  that  noble  and  Christian  humility,  which  ren 
ders  us  so  agreeable  to  God,  and  respectable  in 
the  eyes  of  men.  I  say,  that  of  consequence, 
your  obligations  increase  with  your  rank;  that 
the  greater  the  number  of  your  people,  the  more 
miseries  you  have  to  relieve,  and  that  thus,  the 
less  ought  to  remain  to  you  of  the  revenues  of 
the  church,  for  the  lavish  extravagance  of  luxury 
and  pride.  I  say,  that  the  more  exalted  you 
are,  the  nearer  does  your  sacred  dignity  ap 
proach  you  to  Jesus  Christ,  the  Prince  of  pas 
tors,  who  in  the  labors  which  he  underwent 
from  his  youth,  was  poor  and  had  not  whereon 
to  recline  his  head,  that  the  more  you  appear 
to  be  invested  with  his  authority,  the  more  ought 
you  to  appear  animated  with  his  spirit,  and  to 
represent  his  virtues  as  you  represent  his  per 
son  ;  to  be  like  him,  humble,  modest,  an  enemy 
to  luxury  and  pomp  ;  like  him,  concerned  only 
for  the  glory  of  his  Father  and  for  the  salvation 

*  Session  25. 


ECCLESIASTICAL    REVENUES.  337 

of  the  lost  sheep  of  the  house  of  Israel  ;*  full  of 
tenderness  towards  the  wretched  and  forlorn,,  and 
distributing;  the  very  bread  which  is  necessary 
for  yourself,  to  relieve  their  wants.  Those,  says 
the  same  council,,  whom  the  church  has  called 
to  the  honors  of  the  sanctuary,  ought  to  under 
stand  well,  that  they  have  not  been  clothed  with 
that  dignity,  to  seek  their  own  interests,  to 
amass  riches  or  pass  their  lives  in.  opulence  and 
luxury  ;  but  to  labour  without  intermission,  for 
the  glory  of  the  Lord,  and  to  live  in  anxious 
solicitude  and  continual  vigilance. 

In  the  fourth  place,  you  must  not  here,  con 
found  those  expenses  allowed  by  the  canons  of 
the  church  for  the  support  of  her  dignitaries, 
with  that  profuse  extravagance  which  the  abuses 
of  succeeding  ages  have  introduced.  The  church., 
by  a  fatal  necessitv,  all  divine  as  she  is,  accord 
ing  to  the  fervor  or  the  relaxation  of  her  chil 
dren,  follows  in  her  external  state,  the  destiny 
of  human  things,  and  like  them,  experiences  the 
vicissitudes  inseparable  from  the  condition  of  the 
present  scene.  But  time  which  has  changed 
our  morals,  has  not  altered  the  sacred  rules,  and 
the  example  of  the  greater  number  may  indeed 

*  *  Matthew,  c.  xv.  v,  24. 

Y 


338  ON    THE    USE    OF 

multiply    abuses,    but   cannot    authorize   them. 
Read  the  sacred  laws  of  our  Fathers  regaiding 
the  frugality  even  of  those,  who  are  honoured 
with  the  plenitude  of  the  priesthood  and  the  pre 
eminence  of  authority.      After  the   example  of 
our  fathers  assembled  in  the  council  of  Carthage, 
ice,  says  the  same  holy  council  of  Trent,  not  on 
ly  command  that  Bishops  use  modest  furniture, 
and  be  content  with  a  frugal  table,  but  more 
over,  that  in  their  whole  conduct,  in  their  houses 
and  about  their  persons,  nothing  appear  foreign 
to  their  holy  institute,  and  which   breathes  not 
simplicity,  the  zeal  of  God,  and  the  contempt  of 
the  vanities   of  the  world.      Ne  quid   appareat 
quod  ab  hoc  sancto  instituto  sit  alicnum,  quod  que 
non  simplicitatem,  Dei  zelum,  ac  ranitatem  con- 
temptum  prcc  se  feral.     Such  is  the  language  of 
this  holy  council,  which  I  cite  expressly,  in  pre 
ference  to  so  many  others,  because  these  laws 
have  been  made  almost  in  our  own  days,  and 
because  we  cannot  therefore  oppose  to  them  the 
plea  of  prescription,  or  of  difference  of  ages  and 
manners.     Now,  my  brethren,  it  is  the  laws  of 
the  church,   and  not  the   usages  of  a   corrupt 
world,  that  should  regulate  the  conduct  >of  her 
ministers :  it  is  for  her,  that  has  deposited  her 
riches  in  your  hands,  to  point  out  the  use  which 


ECCLESIASTICAL    REVENUES.  339 

you  are  to  make  of  them.  If  you  depart  from 
her  spirit  and  her  intentions,  in  the  administra 
tion  of  her  property,  she  secretly  retracts  the 
donation  which  she  had  made  to  you,,  of  them  : 
she  regards  you  as  an  unfaithful  steward ;  and 
not  being"  able  to  despoil  you,  of  these  sacred 
goods,  here  on  earth,  she  awaits  that  day,  when 
she  will  be  able  to  make  you  account  even  for 
the  last  farthing,  before  the  First  Pastor  and  only 
Lord  of  that  inheritance,  which  you  have  so  ini- 
quitously  wasted.  What,  my  brethren  ?  because 
the  world  authorizes  in  the  ministers  of  religion, 
pomp  and  pride  and  profuseness,  and  morals  op 
posed  to  the  rules  of  the  gospel,  you  would  sup 
pose  that  the  church  instead  of  contradicting  the 
erroneous  judgments  of  the  world,  deemed  it  right 
to  relax  those  rules  in  order  to  make  them  ac 
cord  with  the  false  maxims  of  the  world  ?  She 
weeps  over  the  abuses  which  the  world  has  car 
ried  into  the  very  sanctuary,  and  the  more  in 
veterate  they  become  and  the  more  widely  they 
spread,  the  more  is  she  afflicted  and  the  more 
does  she  detest  the  world.  But  I  must  be  more 
correct.  Let  us  do  justice  to  the  world,  my 
brethren,  and  not  accuse  it  of  introducing  or  au 
thorizing  our  abuses  :  this  very  world,  all  cor 
rupt  as  it  is,  secretly  reproaches,  in  the  pastors 


340  ON    THE   USE   OF 

of  the  church,  that  pageantry  and  extravagance 
which  it  would  seem  to  admire  :  it  is  the  first 
and  severest  censor  of  the  very  abuse  which  ap 
pears  to  be  its  own  work:  all  blind  and  unjust 
as  it  is,  it  has  yet  remaining  sufficient  respect  for 
the  majesty  of  religion,  to  comprehend  that  her 
ministers  should  honour  her,  rather  by  the  sanc 
tity  of  their  lives  than  by  the  splendor  of  their 
style  of  living  :  it  is  fully  sensible  of  the  ridi 
cule  and  the  indecency  of  pomp  in  a  holy  state, 
and  in  the  expenditure  of  funds  consecrated  to 
piety  and  to  mercy :  the  most  worldly  themselves 
are  scandali/ed  and  indignant,  to  behold  the 
wealth  of  the  altar  ministering  to  luxury,  to  sen 
suality,  to  intemperance  and  to  all  the  foolish 
or  guilty  vanities  of  the  clay  :  they  accuse  the 
simplicity  of  their  ancestors  for  having  devoted 
to  religion,  such  ample  revenues,  to  feed  the 
pride  and  the  effeminacy  of  her  ministers,  and 
for  having  diminished  the  inheritance  of  their 

J5 

families,  only  to  augment  the  abuses  and  the 
scandals  of  the  church :  they  say  that  those  funds 
would  be  much  more  usefully  employed,  on  the 
education  of  their  children,  and  in  putting  them 
in  a  condition  to  serve  their  country,  than  in 
maintaining  the  pomp  and  idleness  of  clericks, 
equally  useless  to  the  church  and  to  the  state  : 


ECCLESIASTICAL   REVENUES.  341 

they  complain  that  whilst  every  other  rank  suf 
fers,  and  whilst  the  calamities  of  the  times  are  felt 
by  every  citizen.,  the  clergy  alone  abound  in  plea 
sures  and  in  wealth.  Schismatic  violence  when  it 
seized,  in  a  latter  age,  the  property  of  the  church 
ailed" ed  no  other  pretext  for  its  usurpation  :  the 
profane  use  to  which  the  greater  part  of  the 
clergy  converted  the  riches  of  the  sanctuary, 
warranted  those  impious  hands  to  tear  them  from 
the  altar,  and  to  restore  to  the  world  those  goods, 
which  their  possessors  employed  only  after  the 
manner  of  the  world.  And  who  can  say,  whether 
the  same  abuse,  which  prevails  amongst  us,  may 
not,  one  day,  draw  down  on  our  successors  a 
similar  punishment,  and  whether  the  justice  of 
God  may  not  permit  those  sacred  funds,  the  per 
version  of  which  lias  so  much  dishonoured  his 
church,  to  be  delivered  to  the  enemies  of  his 
name,  and  to  become,  as  amongst  so  many  other 
nations  separated  from  the  unity  of  the  faith,  the 
prey  of  the  heretic  or  of  the  infidel  ?  It  was  the 
base  and  sensual  abuse  which  the  sons  of  Ileli 
made  of  the  revenue  of  their  priesthood,  that 
delivered  the  Ark  of  the  Covenant  into  the 
hands  of  the  Philistines,  and  caused  the  libation 
and  sacrifice  to  cease,  for  a  season,  in  Israel. 
The  profanation  of  holy  things  goes  seldom  un- 


342  ON    THE    USE    OF 

punished,  and  if  Heliodorus,  pagan  as  he  was, 
be  so  severely  chastised  for  laying-  sacrilegious 
hands  on  the  treasures  of  the  temple,  what  pu 
nishment  ought  not  the  ministers  themselves  of 
the  temple,  to  expect,  should  they  be  impious 
enough  to  purloin  and  abuse  them  ? 

Thus,  I  may  ask  you,  in  the  fifth  place ;  do 
you  really  imagine  that  those  pious  Christians, 
who  formerly  enriched  our  temples  by  their  of 
ferings,  designed  to  establish  places  and  dignities 
that  might  exhihit  and  support  the  proud  preten 
sions  of  rank,  the  pomp  and  spirit  of  the  world? 
What?  they,  who  tho'  engaged  in  the  world, 
renounced  its  vanities,  intended  to  introduce 
them  into  the  holy  place  ?  What  ?  the  Paulas, 
the  Marcellas,  the  Olympiades,  and  those  pious 
widows  who  consecrated  the  inheritance  of  their 
ancestors  to  Jesus  Christ,  despoiled  themselves 
of  their  worldly  splendor  only  that  it  might  de 
corate  those,  whose  duty  it  is  to  preach  the  con 
tempt  of  it,  to  all  their  brethren ;  could  they  who 
so  much  edified  even  the  world  itself,  have  wish 
ed  to  become  a  subject  of  scandal  to  the  church 
of  God?  and  can  the  eternal  monuments  of  their 
disinterestedness  and  their  zeal,  be  turned  in 
our  hands,  into  excuses  for  luxury  and  ostenta 
tion  ?  It  was  the  ardent  charity  and  holy  sim- 


ECCLESIASTICAL    REVENUES.  343 

plicity  of  the  first  pastors,,  that  secured  those  pi 
ous  largesses  to  the  church  ;  and  if  her  ministers 
had,  in  those  days,  appeared  proud  and  expen 
sive,  never  would  those  pious  souls  have  con 
fided  the  administration  of  their  bounty  to  stew 
ards,  who  seemed  more  concerned  about  their 
pleasures  and  their  ease,  than  about  the  neces 
sities  of  the  poor  and  suffering  members  of  Jesus 
Christ.  It  is  then  to  the  sanctity  alone  of  our 
predecessors,  that  we  are  indebted  for  the  riches 
confided  to  us,  and  we  are  unworthy  of  succeed 
ing  to  their  administration,  if  we  do  not  succeed 
to  those  virtues  by  which  they  obtained  it. 

But  have  not  the  dignities  of  the  church,  need 
of  a  certain  degree  of  splendor,  to  attract  and 
command  the  respect  of  the  people  ?  Is  it  not 
to  be  feared  that  they  would  fall  into  con 
tempt,  unless  they  were  supported  by  some  of 
that  external  decoration,  which  is  necessary  for 
the  maintenance  of  authority  ?  A  stern  simpli 
city  might  edify  in  those  ages,  when  all  the 
faithful  were  Saints  ;  but  amidst  the  present  cor 
ruption  of  our  morals,  and  at  a  time,  when  the 
world  is  already  too  much  disposed  to  contemn 
the  clergy  together  with  the  authority  of  the 
priesthood,  should  we  not  encircle  our  office 
with  a  certain  imposing  grandeur,  whicii  may 


344 


ON    THE    USE    OF 


render  the  worship  of  religion  respectable,  even 
to  those  who  despise  its  laws  ? 

But,  my  brethren,  when  was  it  that  the  world 
ceased  to  respect  the  clergy?  was  it  not  when 
they  themselves,  ceased  to  render  themselves 
respectable?  Whether  is  it  the  disorders  of  the 
world,  or  those  of  the  clergy,  that  have  turned 
into  satire  and  contempt,  that  veneration  in  which 
the  faithful  once  held  persons,  consecrated  to 
the  holy  ministry  ?  and  do  you  imagine  that  a 
vain  pomp  and  a  costly  exterior  which  even  the 
world  condemns,  will  supply  the  place  of  those 
virtues  which  alone  command  respect,  or  do  ho 
nor  to  the  church,  which  they  afflict  and  scanda 
lize?  Is  it,  that  sacred  dignities  are  merely  to 
impose  on  the  eyes  and  the  senses?  are  they  not 
exclusively  established  to  edify,  to  speak  to  the 
heart,  to  inspire  a  hatred  of  the  world,  and  the 
desire  and  love  of  the  goods  of  heaven  ?  Does  the 
church,  to  support  herself,  need  the  assistance 
of  luxury  and  pride  ?  It  was  by  holiness  and 
charity  that  she  was  established,  and  it  is  bv 
them,  that  she  will  be  maintained,  and  will  con 
tinue  and  spread  to  the  consummation  of  ages. 
What  respect  can  accrue  to  her,  from  the  pomp 
of  her  ministers  ?  It  has  served  as  a  pretext  for 
entire  kingdoms  to  separate  themselves,  from  the 


ECCLESIASTICAL   REVENUES.  345 

unity  of  the  faith  :  it  has  torn  from  her  bosom 
many  nations,  which  she  once  gained  by  the 
blood  of  her  Martyrs  and  her  Apostles  ;  it  is, 
even  at  this  day,,  the  source  of  censures,  of  de 
risions  and  blasphemies  against  her :  it  scanda 
lizes  those  who  have  remained  in  her  pale ;  it 
shakes  the  faith  of  the  simple;  it  confirms  the 
infidel  in  his  impiety,  and  consigns  the  widow 
and  the  orphan  to  indigence  and  despair :  it 
causes  to  ascend  to  the  throne  of  God's  justice, 
the  cries  of  the  distressed  and  abandoned  poor., 
whose  misery  and  destitution  call  for  vengeance 
on  those  barbarous  stewards,  who  refuse  to  those 
wretched  creatures,  a  fund  which  is  their  right, 
that  they  themselves  may  squander  it  in  scanda 
lous  and  cruel  dissipation ;  such  is  the  glory 
that  results  from  it  to  the  church:  it  is  for  you 
to  say,  whether  you  are  disposed  to  reckon  her 
schisms,  her  scandals,  her  shame,  her  losses  and 
her  grief  among  her  trophies. 

I  acknowledge  that  the  modesty  of  her  minis 
ters,  ought  to  be  exempt  from  every  thing  abject 
and  contemptible.  But  a  noble  simplicity  has 
a  thousand  times  more  dignity,  in  the  eyes,  even 
of  the  world,  than  all  the  vain  parade  of  mis 
placed  magnificence :  there  is  nothing  so  mean, 
as  to  endeavour  to  obtain  respect,  by  expedients. 


346  ON    THE   USE    OP 

unsuited  alike  to  our  profession  and  our  duties*  r- 
never  were  the  ministers  of  the  church  more 
esteemed  or  more  honoured,  than  in  those  ages, 
when  their  poverty  and  their  modesty  appeared 
most  conspicuous.  Cornelius,  a  centurion  of  the 
proud  legions  of  imperial  Rome,  as  yet  a  Gen 
tile,  throws  himself  at  the  feet  of  the  chief  of  the 
Apostles  ;  hut  is  he  dazzled  at  the  pomp  and 
splendor  by  which  Peter  is  surrounded?  He 
finds  him  lodged  near  the  sea-shore,*  in  the 
house  of  an  artisan  from  the  dregs  of  the  peo 
ple  :  his  dress,  his  retinue,  every  thing  corres 
ponds  with  the  poverty  and  simplicity  of  his 
abode  :  it  was  the  piety  and  virtue  and  some 
thing  inexpressibly  divine,  which  sanctity  had 
poured  over  the  face  and  person  of  the  Apostle, 
which  made  Cornelius  feel  and  reverence  the 
greatness  of  the  man  and  the  excellence  of  his 
ministry.  Were  the  honors  which  the  officer  of 
the  Queen  of  Ethiopia  did  to  Philip,  f  by  tak-r 
ing  him  into  his  chariot,  ascribable  to  the  pomp 
which  environed  that  minister  of  Jesus  Christ? 
The  man  of  God  was  on  foot,  bearing  in  the 
simplicity  of  his  appearance  and  manner,  the  re 
semblance  of  a  prophet,  and  by  the  celestial 

*Acts.  c.  x.  v.  32.          t  Ibid,  e.  \iif. 


ECCLESIASTICAL    REVENUES.  347 

radiance  which  grace  had  shed  upon  his  coun 
tenance,  he  is  recognised  by  this  officer,  as  an 
Angel  of  the  Lord,  sent  to  instruct  him  in  the 
way  of  salvation.  Whether  did  Leo,  without 
any  other  decoration  than  his  virtue  and  his 
priesthood,  and  Benedict  in  his  solitude,  arrest 
the  ravaging  fury  of  two  barbarous  kings,  and 
compel  them  to  respect  in  their  persons,  the 
presence  of  that  God  whose  ministers  they  were, 
by  the  richness  and  magnificence  of  their  equi 
page,  or  by  the  sanctity  of  their  lives  and  the  ma 
jesty  of  their  virtues?  No,  my  brethren,  let  us 
be  holy  and  we  shall  be  respected  :  let  us  do 
honor  to  our  ministry  and  our  ministry  will 
make  us  honoured  :  let  us  not  conform  to  the 
vain  pomps  of  the  world  ;  this  is  our  only  means 
of  gaining  its  homage  or  deserving  its  venera 
tion  :  the  world  envies,  more  than  it  respects, 
our  opulence ;  let  us  make  a  holy  use  of  it,  and 
it  will  esteem  our  charity  and  no  longer  envy 
our  wealth.  We  mistake  the  nature  and  sanc 
tity  of  our  ministry,  if  we  suffer  ourselves  to 
be  persuaded,  that  there  is  any  thing  but  vir 
tue,  that  can  render  it  respectable ;  but  we  mis 
take  the  world  still  more,  if  we  hope  to  inspire 
it  with  respect  for  religion,  by  the  very  abuses 
which  render  her  ministers  contemptable.  Saint 


348  ON    THE   USE   OF 

Augustine  was  simply  clad,  lived  on  nothing  but 
vegetables,  reserving  the  greater  delicacy  of  (lesh 
meat  for  the  exercise  of  hospitality ;  yet  \vhat 
honors  did  he  not  receive  from  his  age  ?  Basil 
the  great^  always  wore  the  same  garment,  and 
all  the  riches,  says  Saint  Gregory  Nazianzen, 
which  he  possessed  at  his  death,  was  a  simple 
cross  :  yet  Basil  was  the  oracle  of  the  east,  res 
pected  by  the  whole  world,  and  even  by  the  ve 
ry  Emperors  whose  errors  he  had  comhatted. 
Exuperius  that  venerable  Bishop,  carried  his  dis 
interestedness  and  his  bounty  so  far,  savs  Saint 
Jerome,  that  he  was  necessitated  to  carry  the 
sacred  Eucharist  in  a  basket  of  twigs,  and  the 
blood  of  the  Redeemer  in  a  vessel  of  clay,  O 
holy  magnificence  1  O  splendor  truly  episcopal^ 
and  truly  worthy  a  minister  of  the  cross !  O 
spectacle  of  charity,  a  thousand  times  more  de 
serving  of  the  respect  and  the  homage  of  men, 
than  all  the  gaudy  decorations  of  profane  luxury 
and  pomp.  I  will  not  say,  look,  and  do  according 
to  this  pattern  :  theee  great  examples  are  no 
longer  within  reach  of  our  manners  :  but  I  will 
ask  you,  whether  the  chinch  lost  any  thing  of 
her  majesty,  in  the  simplicity  and  the  frugality 
of  those  illustrious  pastors,  and  whether  the  dig 
nity  of  the  episcopacy  was  ever  more  venerated. 


ECCLESIASTICAL   REVENUES,  349 

than  when  it  shone  only  by  the  sanctity,  the 
humility,  and  the  evangelical  poverty  of  those 
who  wore  it?  The  first  circumstance  then,  hy 
which  we  suffer  ourselves  to  be  deceived,  is  an 
error  relative  to  our  dignity. 

The  second  is  that  which  I  have  called  an  er 
ror  of  name.     I  admit  first,  that  persons  of  ex 
alted  birth,  from  the  manner  in  which  they  have 
been  educated,  need  certain  conveniences  with 
which  those  of  ordinary  rank  may  dispense,  and 
that  the  former  have  wants,  which  would  be  ef 
feminacy  and  extravagance  in  the  latter.      But 
do  you  imagine  that  the  church,  which  condemns 
in  the  very  laity,  that  profane  pomp  which  vici 
ous  usage  has  attached  to  the  phantom  of  name 
and  of  birth,  not  only  authorizes  it  in  her  minis 
ters,  but  even  wishes  to  support  it,  out  of  the  pro 
perty  of  the  poor,  out  of  the  riches  of  the  sanc 
tuary,  and  pay  the  expenses  of  an  abuse  which 
she  mourns  and  detests  ?     Whether  are  y.ou  a 
minister  of  Jesus  Christ,  as  noble?  or  as  pious, 
faithful,  vigilant,  laborious,  enlightened?  Whe 
ther  is  it  your  name,  or  yotir  virtue  which  has 
induced  the  church  to  choose,   and  consecrate 
you  to  the  functions  of  the   altar?    Is- it  your 
birth,  or  your  learning  and  piety,  that  can  dis 
charge  the  duties  of  the  holy  ministry?    Why, 


350 


ON   THE    USE    OF 


then,  would  you  pretend  that  the  church  should 
accord  increased  remuneration,  to  what  is  use 
less  for  her  purposes?  Not  he  who  is  most  noble 
and  most  illustrious,  but  he  who  labours  most, 
is  worthy,  says  Saint  Paul,  of  double  honor. 
Does  a  great  name  bestow  on  you,  more  zeal, 
more  knowledge,  more  sanctity,  more  fidelity 
and  application  to  your  duties  ?  What  does  it 
profit  the  church  ?  Why  then  should  she  set  any 
value  on  it,  and  why  should  a  title  which  adds 
nothing-  to  your  services,  increase  her  liberality 
in  your  regard  ? 

Besides,  be  mindful  of  the  principle  alrciuly 
established,  that  whatever  may  be  the  distinction 
of  your  birth,  the  church  supports  you,  only  as 
one  of  the  poor ;  the  fund  from  which  your 
maintenance  is  drawn,  is  the  fund  of  the  widow 
and  the  orphan,  of  the  indigent  and  the  wretch 
ed.  Now  the  church  in  the  distribution  of  her 
pious  bounty,  does  not  intend  to  award  to  a  pau 
per  of  illustrious  rank,  all  that  might  be  neces 
sary  for  him,  to  uphold  the  pride  of  his  birth  in 
the  world,  had  his  fortune  corresponded  witli 
his  name.  A  pauper  of  high  rank  may,  indeed, 
be  distinguished  by  a  larger  allowance ;  but  it 
should  be  ever  remembered  that  what  he  re 
ceives  i*  an  alms,  and  that  alms  do  not  restore 


ECCLESIASTICAL   REVENUES.  351 

to  the  distressed,  the  enjoyment  of  all,  that  for 
tune  may  have  snatched  from  them,  but  barely 
what  may  suffice  to  supply  the  necessities  of  na 
ture.  Hear  the  opinion  of  the  pious  Peter  of 
Blois:  if,  says  he,  writing-  to  the  Bishop  of 
Chartres,  if,  because  you  are  the  son  of  a  gran 
dee,  or  even  because  you  can  count  kings  among 
your  ancestors,  you  pretend  that  it  is  necessary 
for  you  to  live  more  lavishly  than  others,  I  tell 
you,  on  the  part  of  God,  that  this  pretended  ne 
cessity  must  not  fail  on  the  patrimony  of  Jesus 
Christ :  Necessitas  hcec,  Christ i  patrimonium  non 
contingat :  on  the  contrary,  the  modesty  of  a 
Bishop,  should  regulate  and  lessen  the  expen 
diture  which  you  would  have  made,  had  you 
remained  in  the  world,  and  thus  turn  your  ex 
penses  into  the  support  of  the  poor.  Such  is 
the  language  of  the  church,  and  such  has  been 
the  practice  of  her  faithful  pastors,  in  every  age. 
Did  Paul,  though  a  Roman  citizen  claim  any 
outward  distinction?  or  was  he  a  greater  burden 
to  the  church,  than  Peter,  a  fisherman  ?  you 
know  well,  as  he  himself  says,  that  he  desired 
neither  the  gold  nor  silver  nor  vesture  of  any 
one:  the  labor  of  his  own  hands  supplied  his 
wants  ;  he  did  not  wish  even  to  be  an  expense 
to  the  faithful  whom  he  had  brought  forth  to 


352  ON    THE    USE    OF 

Jesus  Christ,  and  from  whom  he  had  a  right 
to  exact  the  honor  and  the  recompence  due  to  the 
ministers  of  the  gospel  ;  and  the  only  privilege 
of  birth,  about  which  he  was  solicitous,,  was 
that  of  labouring  more  than  others,  in  the  Apos- 
tleship,  and  of  deriving  less  of  temporal  reward 
from  his  toils.  Did  the  Ambroses,  the  Pauli- 
nuses,  those  great  Bishops  of  illustrious  descent, 
live  with  greater  magnificence  and  profusion, 
than  Augustine,  the  son  of  a  simple  citizen  of 
Tageste  ?  Paulinus  sold  his  immense  inheri 
tance,  to  pour  it  into  the  bosom  of  the  poor  : 
Ambrose  disposed  even  of  the  sacred  vessels,  to 
relieve  the  necessities  of  his  people:  my  trea 
sures  j-aid  he  arc  the  poor  of  Christ;  my  guards 
are  the  blind,  the  lame,  the  sick,  the  aged ;  my 
only  treasure  their  vows  and  prayers  Yes,  my 
brethren,  these  .holy  pastors,  putting  oflf  the  ig 
nominy  of  the  secular  habit,  laid  aside  all  those 
vain  distinctions,  which  the  world  alone  ought 
to  know  :  they  forgot  the  name  of  their  ances 
tors  and  the  house  of  their  family,  from  the  mo 
ment,  in  which  they  assumed  the  character  and 
the  name  of  pastors,  that  name  so  endearing, 
so  humble,  bespeaking  so  much  tenderness  and 
service  for  the  people :  from  their  entry  into 
the  priesthood  of  Melchisedec,  they  knew  no 


ECCLESIASTICAL    REVENUES.  353 

longer,  any  genealogy,  persuaded  that  the  church 
respects  and  recognises  no  name,  in  her  minis 
ters,  but  the  august  name  of  the  ministry  it 
self. 

Moreover,  my  brethren,  can  a  Priest  and  a 
Pastor  alledge  his  name,  as  an  excuse  for  his  lux 
ury  and  his  pomp,  whilst  so  many  of  tlie  faith 
ful  whose  father  he  is;  whilst  the  members  of 
Christ,  which  the  church  has  confided  to  his 
care,  mourn  in  affliction  and  in  want,  without 
help,  without  protection,  without  any  other  re 
source  than  their  patience  and  their  tears ;  aban 
doned  and  unknown  even  by  him,  who  ought 
to  know  his  sheep,  to  call  them  by  their  names; 
who  ought  to  relieve  them  and  not  suffer  one  of 
them  to  perish  ?  Can  we  honour  our  name  or  our 
birth,  by  inhumanity  and  tlie  forgetfulness  of 
mercy?  Whether  is  it  the  expensive  gratifications 
of  luxury  or  the  noble  sentiments  of  the  heart, 
that  render  us  truly  great  ?  and  what  can  be 
more  mean  and  more  vulgar,  than  to  be  insensi 
ble  to  miseries  which  we  are  bound  to  relieve ;  and 
to  detain,  that  we  may  live  in  superfluous  abun 
dance,  the  property  of  a  thousand  wretches,  who 
abide  in  suffering,  and  invoke  death  as  the  only 
remedy,  and  the  happy  termination,  of  their  mi 
series  ?  Should  not  nobility  of  blood  itself,  open 

z 


351  ON   THE   USE   OF 

our  hearts,,  on  such  occasions,  and  inspire  us 
with  the  lofty  and  benevolent  sentiments,  wor 
thy  of  a  soul  that  was  not  born  in  the  crowd?  If 
birth  were  to  place  any  distinction,  between  the 
two  classes  of  the  ministers  of  the  church;  if  it 

were  allowed  to  assijni  to  eacli  of  them  its  dis- 

o 

tinctive  prerogative  :  it  would  seem  to  be,  that 
those  who  are  born  among1  the  people,  ought  to 
be  more  harsh,  more  puffed  up  by  their  digni 
ties,  more  jealous  of  that  outward  show  and  of 
those  gaudy  trapping's,  which  might  raise  and  de 
corate  their  meanness ;  whereas  generosity,  ele 
vation  of  sentiment,  tenderness  for  the  wretched, 
a  noble  contempt  of  pomp  and  magnificence, 
more  extensive  charity,  would  appear  to  be  tlve 
portion  of  those,  who  with  an  illustrious  name 
derived  from  their  ancestors,  ought  to  have  in 
herited  sentiments  worthy  of  their  birth.  Alas! 
my  brethren,  the  rich  man,  in  the  gospel,*  is  re 
proved,  because  whilst  he  was  clad  in  purple  and 
fine  linen,  and  feasted  sumptuously,  every  day, 
he  suffered  Lazarus  to  beg  and  mourn  without 
relief,  at  his  gate :  he  was  expending  in  his  lux 
urious  feastings,  nothing  but  his  own,  a  pro 
perty  which  he  had  possessed  from  his  family, 

*Lukc.  c.  xvi. 


ECCLESIASTICAL    REVENUES.  355 

and  of  which,  it  would  therefore  appear,  that  he 
might  dispose  at  his  pleasure.  But  you,  who 
under  the  vain  pretext  of  your  distinguished 
name,  employ  in  a  like  use,  the  fund  of  the 
widow  and  of  the  orphan,  the  patrimony  of  those 
destitute  and  squalid  Lazaruses  whom  you  ne 
glect  ;  you,  who  add  to  the  barbarity  and  the 
sensuality  of  the  reprobate  Dives,  the  injustice 
of  depriving  the  poor  of  their  sacred  right,  to 
squander  it  in  silly  and  wicked  dissipation,  see 
whether  your  sentence  will  not  be  more  rigo 
rous,  and  the  chastisements  which  the  justice  of 
God  is  preparing  for  you,  more  excruciating 
than  those  of  this  hardened  and  voluptuous  man, 
in  proportion  as  your  crime  infinitely  surpasses 
the  guilt  of  that,  with  which  he  is  reproached. 

In  fine,  that  I  may  leave  nothing  unanswered, 
on  a  point  so  essential,  let  me  grant,  for  a  mo 
ment,  that  the  laws  of  the  church  permit  you  to 
enjoy  out  of  the  sacred  property,  which  she  con 
fides  to  you,  the  same  comforts,  and  indulge  in 
the  same  superfluities,  in  which  you  might  have 
lived,  from  the  patrimony  of  your  ancestors, 
had  you  remained  in  the  world.  You,  your 
selves  will  agree  that  this  assumption  is  ridi 
culous  ;  but  let  us  suppose  it  for  a  moment: 
would  you  have  found  in  your  portion  of  the 


*X>f)  OR   TUE   USJS  OK 

family  estate,  wherervilty  to  uphold  tlie  empty 
splendor  of  a  name,  of  which  you  carry  tlie  va 
nity  and  the  prodigality  to  such  an  extreme,  in 
I  he  c)mrch  ?     The  la  si  perhaps,  of  a  numerous 
|>ro««ny,  or  at  least  excluded  from  the  rights  and 
the  prerogatives  of  primogeniture,  you   would 
have  seen  yourself  reduced  to  a  small  fortune, 
in   the  world,   to  the  share  of  a  younger  son, 
which  in  the  most  illustrious  houses,  rarely  ex 
ceeds  a  scanty  mediocrity.      Now,  I  ask  you, 
do  you  expect  to  be  more  opulent,  under  the 
authority  and  the  poverty  of  Jesus  Christ,   tliaii 
you  would  have  been  as  Saint  Jerome  says,  un 
der  the  empire  of  mammon?     What/  shall  the 
church  be  compiled  to  raise  those  to  luxury  and 
abundance,  whom  the  world  would  have  suffered 
to  remain  in  a  slender  competency  ?     Shall  you 
be  more  at  your  ease,  out  of  the  patrimony  of 
the  poor,  than  you  could  liave  been  out  of  the 
inheritance  of  your  ancestors?  Your  name  would 
not  Iiave  suffered    ia   the   world,  from   the  ob 
scurity  and  the  paucity  of  your  fortune,  and  yet 
it  would  suffer  in  the  church  from  your  charity, 
your  frugality  and  your  modesty?     What  ?  the 
»Forld   which  lias  created  the  vain  phantom  of 
name  and  of  birth,  would  not  have  supported  in 
21-011,  its  own  work,  and  the  church  which  con- 


REVENUES.  357 

demos  and  abhors  it.  shall  be  compelled  to  sup 
port  hs  vanity  and  extravagance?  The  cha 
racter  of  the  world  would  not  suffer  from  the  in 
equality  of  your  fortune  to  your  name,  and  \et 
the  decencies  of  the  church  would  be  violated, 
if  the  virtue,  the  disinterestedness.,  the  tempe 
rance,  the  piety  of  your  life,  were  to  correspond 
with  the  sanctity  and  the  poverty  of  your  profes 
sion  ?  answer,  if  you  dare.  O  my  God!  if  thou 
hast  taught  us  that  it  is  almost  iinpossihlc  for 
the  rich  of  this  world  lo  enter  into  the  kingdom 
of  heaven,*  if  the  goods  of  this  life,  almost  al 
ways;  draw  down  a  secret  malediction  on  those 
who  possess  them  ;  if  it  be  so  difficult  to  use 
Ifiem  according  to  the  rules  of  faith,  of  charity, 
of  temperance  and  of  Christian  poverty,  what, 
O  HIV  God  !  must  be  the  dangers  attendant  on 

"  O 

tlie  possession  of  sacred  goods  !  what  an  obsta 
cle  in  the  way  of  saltation?  what  abysses  of  ne 
glect,  of  superfluities,  of  prodigality  and  of  pro 
fanation,  over  which  general  example  spreads  a 
fatal  darkness,  which  we  almost  never  penetrate, 
and  about  which  we  do  not  even  think  of  en 
tering;  into  any  examination  with  ourselves? 
Decide  then  whether  the  circumstance  of  your 

^Matthew,  c.  xix.  vv.  23.  21. 


358 


ON    THE    USE    OF 


name  and  of  your  birth,  ought  to  quiet  your 
conscience,  regarding  (lie  unjust  dispensation 
of  the  revenues  of  the  church. 

But,  perhaps,  the  error  involved  in  the  third 
circumstance,  will  be  found  more  favourable  to 
you  :  it  turns  upon  the  abundance  or  the  medi 
ocrity  of  the  revenue  which  we  enjoy.  It  seems, 
at  first  view,  surprising,  that  the  same  error 
should  spring  from  two  sources  so  opposite  : 
but  experience  does  not  permit  us  to  indulge 
any  doubt,  upon  the  subject.  If  the  revenue 
which  we  possess  be  considerable,  we  persuade 
ourselves,  that  our  expenses  should  increase  in 
proportion,  and  almost  nothing  remains  for  the 
poor  :  if  it  be  small,  we  have  scarce  sufiicient  for 
ourselves,  and  the  poor  can  have  no  longer,  any 
pretension  to  share  in  it.  These  abuses  are 
gross  it  is  true  ;  but  cupidity  supported  by  cus 
tom,  finds  every  where,  some  excuse. 

In  effect,  my  brethren,  however  abundant  the 
revenue  which  the  church  has  confided  to  you, 
and  I  do  not  here  enquire,  whether  it  be  within 
the  limits  prescribed  by  the  rules  of  discipline, 
or  whether  the  greater  part  of  the  benefices 
which  you  possess  and  which  swell  your  in 
come  so  enormously,  be  conformable  to  the  in 
tentions  and  the  spirit  of  the  church,  you  know 


ECCLESIASTICAL    REVENUES.  3/3 9 

they  are  not:  but  this  subject  must  be  reserved 
for  another  occasion :  whatever  then  may  be  the 
extent  of  this  revenue,  it  does  not  make  you 
the  richer;  1  have  already  proved  that  you  are 
merely  charged  with  a  greater  dispensation  ;  you 
cannot  then  appropriate  a  larger  portion  to  your 
self. 

For,  let  me  ask  yon,  whether  in  the  beginning, 
when  the  Bishop  alone  held  the  whole  revenue 
of  his  church,  he  was  therefore  the  more  expen 
sive,  the  more  pompous,  the  more  profuse?  was 
the  episcopacy  then  regarded  as  a  post  of  greater 
wealth,  of  greater  splendor,  of  more  comforts, 
more  favourable  to  the  indulgence  of  vanity  and 
pleasure  ?  You  have  but  to  go  back  to  those  hap 
py  times,  to  be  convinced,  that  at  no  ether  pe 
riod,  had  the  church  such  poor,  charitable,  peni 
tent,  holy  pastors.  The  Bishop  v»as  the  univer 
sal  steward,  the  inspector  of  all  :  he  was  bur 
dened  with  a  weightier  solicitude  but  had  not 
on  that  account,  greater  advantages  :  there  pass 
ed  more  of  sacred  property  through  his  hands, 
but  more  did  not  remain  for  himself.  And  truly, 
my  brethren,  does  a  property  alter  its  nature,  on 
account  of  its  abundance  ?  Were  a  large  trea 
sure  consigned  to  your  care,  ought  you  to  be  es 
teemed  wealthier  than  another,  who  was  the  de- 


360  ON   THE    USE   OF 

positary  merely  of  a  small  sum?  If  you  are 
no  more  than  a  steward,  what  matters  it,  that  you 
have  larger  sums  to  disburse?  you  are  the  guar 
dian  of  the  property  of  a  more  numerous  poor, 
this  is  your  only  privilege ;  but  your  rights  or 
your  necessities,  are  not  thereby  augmented. 

And  we  shall  find  a  new  proof  of  this  truth, 
in  ascending  to  the  source  and  asking  ourselves, 
w!  y  has  the  church  attached  larger  revenues  to 
certain  benefices  ?  was  it  to  secure  more  gra 
tifications  and  greater  magnificence  to  the  in 
cumbents?  You  need  not  be  told  that  such  could 
not  have  been  the  intention  of  the  church :  it 
was  because  the  burdens  of  those  benefices  were 
more  considerable  ;  the  monastery  filled  with  a 
greater  number  of  pious  monks  ;  the  poor  who 
depended  on  it,  more  numerous  ;  it  was,  in  a 
>vord,  because  those  more  abundant  revenues 
were  necessary  for  a  greater  variety  of  holy  uses: 
it  was  the  necessities  alone  of  the  church,  that 
swelled  and  multiplied  the  pious  liberality  of  the 
faithful.  The  same  wants  may  be  no  longer 
felt ;  but  the  church  has  still  many  others :  that 
species  of  misery  which  the  founders  intended 
to  relieve,  may  no  longer  exist,  but  as  long  as 
there  shall  be  poor  and  destitute  to  be  found, 
the  same  intention  will  always  subsist;  they 


ECCLESIASTICAL    REVENUES.  361 

must  replace  those  who  preceded  them,,  and  par 
ticipate  in  that  bounty  to  which  their  misery 
gives  them  a  right.  Wants  may  vary  at  diffe 
rent  periods,  but  sacred  property  does  not  change 
its  condition  ;  its  object  and  use  are  always  the 
same. 

But  far  from  possessing-  an  abundant  income, 
yours,  you  will  say,  scarce  affords  a  slender  com 
petency.  To  elucidate  this  article,,  we  have  but 
to  pass  to  the  fourth  circumstance,  which  is  the 
abuse  of  turning  superfluities  into  wants.  I 
shall  not  here  enter  into  an  invidious  and  useless 
detail,  nor  attempt  to  decide  to  a  nicety,  what 
ought  to  be  esteemed  necessary  to  each  particu 
lar  order  of  the  church.  Such  decision  depends 
on  a  thousand  circumstances,  which  can  be  nei 
ther  foreseen  nor  determined  in  a  discourse  ;  it 
is  sufficient  that  we  establish  the  rule,  the  par 
ticular  cases  will  afterwards  readily  decide  them 
selves. 

An  incontrovertible  maxim  in  this  matter,  and 
one  which  no  abuse  has  ever  attempted  to  com 
bat  or  even  to  qualify,  is,  that  the  necessities  of 
the  clergy  have  much  narrower  limits,  than  those 
of  the  laity.  In  the  wants  of  the  laity,  we  reckon 
not  only  the  necessaries  of  life,  but  also  those 
decencies  which  the  world  has  attached  to  their 


S62  ON    THE    USE    OF 

state  ;  allowable  recreations ;  certain  usage* 
which  universal  custom  has  formed  into  laws ; 
a  prudent  provision  for  the  establishment  of  a 
family:  these  things  once  secured,  what  remains 
is  a  superfluity,  which  belongs  not  to  them,  but 
to  the  poor.  But  in  the  wants  of  the  clergy, 
as  the  property  which  the  church  confides  to 
them,  is  sacred  to  the  poor,  and  as  she  assigns 
to  themselves,  an  allowance  only  in  their  quality 
of  paupers,  we  must  include  no  more  than  mere 
necessaries  ;  that  is  to  say,  what  is  requisite  and 
sufficient  to  uphold  the  decency  of  their  state,  I 
mean  a  wise,  Christian,  modest,  ecclesiastical  de 
cency,  not  that  luxury  and  pomp  which  the 
world  honours  with  the  name  of  decency,  but 
which  is  highly  indecent  and  highly  unsuitable 
to  the  modesty  and  the  simplicity  of  our  holy 
ministry. 

In  effect,  a  second  maxim  as  capital  and  as 
forcible  as  the  foregoing,  is,  that  you  must  not 
estimate  your  necessities  by  usage,  or  by  the 
false  and  corrupt  maxims,  of  the  world,  but,  by 
the  holy  laws  of  the  church,  touching  the  mo 
rals  and  the  expenses  of  the  clergy.  This  rule, 
founded  on  the  doctrine  of  the  Fathers  and  the 
most  ancient  decrees  of  the  church,  is  propound 
ed  and  enforced  by  the  first  council  of  Milan  in 


ECCLESIASTICAL    REVENUES.  363 

the  following'  words  :  ff  as  to  the  limits/"  says  this 
pious  assembly,,  "  which  every  clerick,  in  refe 
rence  to  his  rank  and  profession,,  should  prescribe 
to  himself  in  the  expenditure  of  ecclesiastical  re 
venue  ;  all  should  know  that  they  are  traced  in 
the  provisions  of  the  holy  canons  touching1  the 
modesty  and  the  frugality  of  the  clergy/'  Behold 
many  doubts  cleared  and  many  questions  already 
decided.  It  is  for  you  now  to  say,  whether 
gaming,  and  those  pleasures  forbidden  even  to 
the  common  faithful,,  and  vanity  of  dress,  and 
luxury  altogether  pagan,  and  a  sensual  life,  and 
the  trappings  of  effeminacy  and  pride,  so  un 
seemly  in  a  minister  of  Christ  crucified,  and  a 
thousand  expenses  of  mere  taste  or  of  pure  ca 
price,  and  a  thousand  superfluities  which  offend 
the  eyes,  even  of  considerate  worldlings,  be  con 
formable  to  those  venerable  regulations,  or  con 
fined  within  the  bounds  which  they  prescribe  to 
the  indulgence  of  the  clergy. 

So,  my  brethren,  the  abuse  of  the  property  of 
the  church  is  so  universal ;  scandals,  upon  so 
essential  a  point,  are  so  common  and  so  accre 
dited  ;  the  sacred  canons  which  enforce  the  fru 
gality  of  clericks  and  the  religious  use  of  the  re 
venues  of  the  sanctuary,  are  so  frittered  away 
by  the  pride  and  worldliness  of  the  greater  part 


364  onr  -me  esc  or 

of  the  mimsfry,  that  we  ought  here  fc 
dfur  tone,  like*  the  Apostle,  arul  fee  content  to 
Convey  our  exhortation  in  *he  following  lan 
guage  :  at  least  retrench  i»  your  style  of  living 
all  those  expenses,  which  the  gospel  condemn* 
in  ordinary  Christians  :  we  dare  not  require  frfcm 
you,  9  clerical  poverty  ;b»t  reduce  yourselves  at 
least  to  a  Christian  moderation :  we  presume 
not  to  insist  on  your  conforming1  to  the  regula 
tions  of  the  holy  cartons,  but  conform  at  least  to* 
those  of  the  gospel :  use  the  things  of  this  world 
as  though  you  used  them  not,,  nor  put  your  trust 
in  uncertain  riches ;  do  not  make  the  kingdom 
of  heaven  consist  m  eating  and  drinking,  nor 
shape  your  eomluct  by  the  maxims  of  this  cor 
rupt  world  ;  heap  up  to  yourselves  treasures  in 
heaven,  where  neither  the  rust  nor  moth  doth 
corrupt,  nor  thieves  dig  through  and  steal :  re 
member  that  the-  reprobate  are  accursed  in  the 
gospel,  only  because  they  had  not  fed  the  hun 
gry  nor  clothed  the  naked,  nor  visited  the  sick 
nor  relieved  the  suffering,  but  wasted  in  grati- 
fving  their  senses,  the  goods  which  providence 
had  confided  to  them  for  the  succour  of  the 
poor:  hate  yonr  soul,  and  combat  its  depraved 
desires,  if  you  wish  to  save  it :  bear  your  cross, 
and  mortify  your  body,  your  pride  and  sensu- 


aii£y  by  privations  and  retuenchment*,  if 
will  be  the  disciple  of  Jesus  Christ:  do 
*>r  you  sliall  certainly  perish.  Such  are  the  rules 
which  the  gospel  prescribes  to  the  .-simple  faithful, 
in  reference  to  modesty,  lo  charily  towards  the 
|>oor,  and  to  the  Christian  use  of  temporal  goods; 
iyegtn  to  recognise  and  observe  them  :  close 
jour  eyes,  if  you  will  to  those  still  more  perfect 
rules,  which  Saint  Paul  lay*  down  for  the  mi 
nisters  of  religion  in  his  epistles  to  Titus  and  to 
Timothy  :  be  Christian  in  your  use  of  the  reve 
nues  of  the  sanctuary;  we  ask  no  more;  be 
yond  that  we  shall  not  now  push  your  obliga 
tions.  To  be  sure,  this  moderate  estimate  of 
your  duty,  is  far  below  the  just  standard  ;  of 
this,  I  am  well  aware,  nor  do  the  truths  which 
you  have  already  heard  permit  you  to  doubt  it: 
hut  it  is  still  too  high  for  the  greater  part  of 
those,  who  enjoy  ecclesia-siiraJ  revenues,  and  who 
consider  the  opulence  of  their  <Tgnit:es,  as  a  ti 
tle  to  sensuality,  to  idleness  and  prodigality.  O 
my  God!  and  dost  thou  sutler  us  to  speak  thus 
in  a  human  manner  of  the  divine  laws  of  thy 
church?  the  force  of  custom  has  so  far  pre 
vailed  against  them,  that  we  scarce  longer  dare 
10  propose  them,  in  their  naked  severity  :  we 
nmsfe  mitigate  and  qualify  them,  to  accooxmo- 


366 


ON    THE    USE    OF 


date  them  to  the  relaxation  of  our  morals  and 
to  the  authority  of  example.  But,  O  my  God  I 
the  torrent  of  generations  and  of  ages  rolls  along 
at  the  base  of  thy  divine  immutability,  and  thoii 
beholdest  the  lapse  and  change  of  ages,  the  vi 
cissitudes  of  morals  and  of  times,  whilst  thou  re- 
mainest  always  the  same:  wert  thou  but  the  God 
of  the  present  age,  we  might,  perhaps,  flatter 
ourselves  that  thou  wouklst  judge  us  by  its 
usages  and  its  morals  ;  but  thou  art  the  immor 
tal  king  of  ages,  the  God  of  eternity,  whose 
truth  remaineth  for  ever;  thou  wilt  judge  us  by 
it  alone;  and  woe  to  every  soul  which  shall  rely 
upon  usage  and  not  upon  truth,  for  its  justifi 
cation,  in  the  terrible  day  of  thy  vengeance. 

This  would  be  the  place  to  develope  the  third 
part  of  this  discourse,  which  I  have  called  the 
error  of  precautions,  but  the  principles  which 
we  have  already  established  are  sufficient  to  over 
turn  and  condemn  it. 

I  shall  merely  add,  that  the  most  monstrous 
and,  at  the  same  time,  the  most  common  of  all 
the  vices  of  pastors,  is,  under  pretext  of  future 
necessities,  to  hoard  up  continually,  without 
ever  dispensing  the  slightest  relief,  and  without 
exercising  a  single  act  of  charity  or  mercy  ;  tlfal 
it  is  inhuman  to  prefer  the  chimerical  apprehen- 


ECCLESIASTICAL    REVENUES. 


361 


sions  of  an  insatiable  cupidity,  to  the  real  and 
present  miseries  of  the  members  of  Jesus  Christ; 
and  that  this  desire  of  amassing  money,  and  this 
sordid  avarice  which  never  thinks  it  has  enough, 
seems  to  he  a  malediction  upon  the  clergy. 
Worldlings  themselves  cover  us  with  this  re 
proach,  and  the  avarice  of  a  Priest  is  one  of 
those  satirical  expressions,  which  among  them, 
have  passed  into  a  proverb.  But,  my  brethren, 
were  new  motives  necessary  to  inspire  you  with 
all  the  horror  of  so  shameful  a  vice,  it  would 
be  sufficient  to  tell  you,  that  it  is  a  vice  the  most 
unworthy  of  a  pastor  of  the  church,  and  the 
most  opposed  to  the  spirit,  and  to  Ihe  sublime 
and  noble  junctions,  of  the  holy  ministry.  An 
avaricious  Priest,  niggardly  towards  the  poor, 
and  even  towards  hhn>elf,  his  thirst  becoming, 
every  day,  more  insatiable  and  his  desires  of 
money  increasing  with  his  treasures,  is  one  of 
those  scandals  which  the  libertine  and  the  vir 
tuous,  the  worldly  and  the  pious,  the  infatuated 
and  the  wise,  regard  with  equal  indignation  : 
nothing  can  render  the  sacerdotal  character  more 
truly  despicable.  Your  thoughts  are  directed  to 
a  futurity,  which  is  all  uncertainty  and  which 
no  man  can  ensure  you :  you  hoard,  and  others 
shall  gather,  and  greedy  relatives  will  divide 


368  ON   THE    USE    OF 

among  themselves,  your  sacred  spoils  ;  nay  they 
will  even  insult  your  cupidity,  at  the  very  time, 
in  which  they  shall  seize  and  devour  its  crimi 
nal  and  detestable  fruits.  But  what  shall  these 
treasures  of  iniquity  and  inhumanity  profit  them, 
says  the  Holy  Ghost?  their  families  shall  bear 
the  curse  of  them,  to  the  fourth  generation  : 
they  have  brought  the  blood  of  the  poor  upon 
their  heads,  and  it  shall  not  cease  to  cry  to  hea 
ven,  for  vengeance  against  them  :  they  have 
blended  up  a  deadly  leaven  with  their  inheri 
tance,  and  it  shall  by  little  and  little,  ferment 
and  corrupt  the  whole  mass:  they  have  carried 
a  hidden  but  devouring  fire  into  their  habita 
tions,  which  sooner  or  later,  will  kindle  into  a 
flame,  and  reduce  them  to  ashes  and  desolation  : 
this  is  a  truth  confirmed  by  the  experience  of 
every  age.  It  is  the  offerings  and  largesses  for 
merly  made  to  the  church,  which  have  preserved 
the  name  and  descent  of  some  of  our  most  il 
lustrious  families :  the  most  ancient  titles  now 
remaining,  of  their  nobility  and  greatness  are 
to  be  found,  in  the  sacred  monuments  of  the 
church,  which  their  ancestors  founded  or  en 
dowed  :  without  those  pious  foundations  the 
glory  of  their  antiquity  would  be  scarcely  known, 
and  all  their  noblest  privileges  either  suspected 


ECCLESIASTICAL    REVENUES.  369 

or  denied ;  the  goods  then,  bestowed  on  the 
church,,  have  preserved  the  ancient  greatness 
and  titles  of  our  most  illustrious  houses,  from 
oblivion  and  doubt.  But  it  is  still  truer,  that 
the  same  goods,,  either  usurped,  or  bequeathed  to 
friends  by  avaricious  incumbents,,  and  expended 
in  supporting-  the  vanity  and  ambition  of  fami 
lies,  have  proved  the  first  cause  of  their  decay  ; 
decked,  as  they  were,  in  the  rich  spoils  of  the 
altar,  we  have  seen  their  proud  root  wither:  the 
usurpation  of  the  property  of  the  church,  is  a 
hidden  worm,  which  gnaws  into  the  very  princi 
ple  of  their  fertility,  which  corrodes  all  their 
greatness  and  brings  down  their  glory  in  the 
dust,  so  that  nothing  remains  but  the  mournful 
ruin  of  their  past  elevation.  Yes,  my  brethren, 
of  the  riches  of  the  ark,  we  may  say  as  of  the 
ark  itself,  that  they  bear  death  and  disease  and 
desolation  into  those  houses,  into  which  they 
are  made  to  enter,  contrary  to  the  ordinance  of 
the  law. 

Let  us,  my  brethren,  avoid  these  rocks ;  let 
us  give  to  God  what  belongs  to  God.  The  more 
the  church  heaps  her  favors  upon  us,  the  more 
zeal  let  us  feel  for  her  necessities  and  for  her 
glory  ;  let  us  imitate,  at  least  the  generosity  and 
gratitude  of  the  children  of  the  world.  When 

2A 


370  ON   THE    USE    OF 

the  prince  has  honoured  them  with  his  benefits 
and  raised  (hem  to  posts  of  distinction,  they  sa 
crifice  their  lives,  in  token  of  their  gratitude: 
they  reckon  the  fatigues  and  perils  of  war,  as 
nothing:  they  generously  employ  for  the  service 
of  their  king,  the  rank  and  fortune  which  they 
hold  from  his  liberality  :  the  recom ponces  be 
stowed  on  them,  become  new  motives  of  zeal, 
and  of  devotion  to  the  cause  of  their  benefactor: 
they  themselves  proclaim  aloud,  that  owing  every 
thing  to  the  favor  of  the  sovereign,  they  cannot 
offer  a  better  homage  of  their  acknowledgments, 
than  by  employing  all  they  possess,  for  his  ser 
vice  :  such,  has  always  been  the  language  of 
men  illustrious  in  the  state:  they  justify  the  pro 
fuse  expenses  to  which  they  are  compelled  by 
their  employments,  and  the  fatigues  and  waste 
of  health  attendant  on  daily  application  to  ardu 
ous  business,  by  the  necessity  of  gratitude  and 
diligence  in  the  high  trust,  with  which  they 
have  been  honoured  by  the  favor  of  their  mas 
ter. 

But,  as  to  us,  my  brethren,  the  favors  which 
the  church  heaps  upon  us,  have  no  other  effect 
than  to  render  us  insensible  to  her  glory  ;  to  con 
firm  and  authorize  our  effeminacy  and  our  es 
trangement  from  the  painful  duties  of  the  mi- 


ECCLESIASTICAL   REVENUES.  371 

nistry,  which  she  has  confided  to  us.  And  we, 
my  brethren,,  diminish  our  services  in  propor 
tion,  as  we  are  elevated  by  her.  And  we,,  my  bre 
thren,,  (and  I  say  it  with  profound  grief,)  the  more 
we  receive  of  her  riches,  the  less,  we  imagine, 
we  ought  to  expend  for  her  honor  ;  the  more, 
even  do  we  employ  against  her  interests  and 
against  her  glory  :  we  make  use  of  her  benefits,, 
only  to  dishonour  her  :  it  would  seem  that  they 
are  arms  which  she  puts  into  our  hands,  that 
we  might  the  more  openly  and  the  more  taunt 
ingly,  brave  her  authority  and  insult  the  wisdom, 
and  the  modesty,  of  her  discipline.  The  dis 
tinctions  and  rewards  of  princes  form  zealous 
servants ;  the  benefits  of  the  church  tend  but  to 
augment  the  unfaithfulness,  the  ingratitude  and 
sloth  of  her  ministers.  Let  us  be,  at  least,  as 
just  and  grateful  as  the  children  of  the  world: 
let  us  consecrate  our  talents,  our  vigils,  our 
cares,  our  very  lives  to  the  glory  of  the  church, 
which  has  made  us  all  that  we  are ;  and  which 
in  confiding  to  us,  her  offices  and  emoluments, 
hoped  to  find  in  us,  defenders  of  her  doctrine 
and  assertors  of  her  laws.  She  is  already  but 
too  much  dishonoured  and  afflicted  by  the  scan 
dals  and  defection  of  so  many  of  her  children : 
let  us  not  increase  her  reproach  and  her  grief  by 


372  ON   THE   USE   OF    &C. 

the  additional  scandal  and  infidelity  of  her  mi 
nisters ;  nor  put  into  her  mouth  the  touching 
reproach  of  the  Prophet,  that  those  who  taste  of 
her  banquet  and  share  in  her  bounty,  those 
friends  for  whom  she  reserves  her  sweetest  and 
most  delicious  repasts,  are  the  very  first  to  turn 
their  back  upon  her,  and  to  repay  her  tenderness 
and  charity  by  the  most  open  contumely  and  in 
gratitude  :  Qui  simul  mccum  dulces  capiebas 
cibos*. .  .Qui  edebat  panes  mcos  magnificavit  su 
per  me  supplant  ationem.\  Let  us  not  suffer  our 
selves  to  be  seduced  by  the  example,  which  we 
behold  around  us,  nor  be  ashamed,  whilst  we 
conform  to  the  laws  of  our  fathers,  of  a  singu 
larity  which  our  obligations  and  the  sanctity  of 
our  state,  will  always  render  creditable  :  let  us 
examine  the  disorders  and  deviations  of  custom 
by  the  immutable  principles  of  our  duty;  let  us 
not  consider  the  conduct  of  others,  but  inquire 
what  our  diameter  demands  of  us  :  let  us  justify 
our  vocation  by  our  works,  and  employ  for  the 
honor  of  the  church  the  wealth,  which  we  have 
received  only  for  her  benefit.  Amen. 

*  Psalm.  54.  v.  15.         f  Psalm.  40.  v.  10. 


A  DISCOURSE 


THE  MANNER,  IN  WHICH  THE  CLERGY 
SHOULD  CONDUCT  THEMSELVES  IN 
THE  WORLD. 


Et  murmurabunt  Pharisaei  ct  Scribae  dicentes :  quia 
hie  peccatores  recipit  et  raanducat  cum  illis. 

And  tlie  Pharisees  and  the  Scribes  murmured,  saying: 
this  man  receiveth  sinners,  and  eateth  with  them. 

LUKE.  chap.  xv.  ver.  2. 


IF,  my  brethren,  the  hope  of  the  applause  of 
men,  and  of  the  public  approbation  of  your  con 
duct,  has  entered  into  the  plan,  which,  in  this 
holy  place,  you  ought  to  have  formed  for  your 
future  life,  it  is  a  proof  that  you  have  known, 
neither  the  character  of  the  world  nor  the  des 
tiny  of  virtue.  The  seclusion  and  austerities  of 
the  Baptist,  did  not  escape  the  censure  of  the 


374  ON   THE    CONDUCT    OF 

Pharisees  ;  nor  do  the  mildness  and  condescen 
sion  of  Jesus  Christ,  meet,  on  this  occasion, 
greater  indulgence  at  their  hands.  Take  the 
most  opposite  courses  :  fly  the  world,  because 
there  is  found  in  it,  nothing-  but  snares  for  vir 
tue,  and  because  the  sanctity  of  your  character 
necessarily  estranges  you  from  its  maxims  and 
its  pursuits;  or  enter  into  it,  because  your  minis 
try  often  calls  you  thither,  because  your  bre 
thren  have  need  of  succour,  and  vice  must  be 
put  to  shame  by  holy  example  :  your  flight  will 
be  equally  censured  as  your  charity,  nor  will 
you  ever  succeed  in  pleasing,  whilst  you  seek 
only  to  edify. 

Yet  we,  are  commanded,  we  particularly  who 
are  answerable  to  the  church  and  to  religion  for 
a  life  without  blemish,  in  the  eyes  of  the  pub 
lic;  we  are  commanded  to  render  ourselves  ir 
reproachable  before  men  :  to  have  a  good  re 
putation  among  the  people,  and  as  Saint  Peter 
pays,  by  the  modesty  of  our  deportment,  and  the 
purity  of  our  morals,  to  force  their  very  malig 
nity  to  glorify  God,  and  bless  his  power  and  the 
riches  of  his  mercy, towards  his  servants.  Those, 
whom  the  grace  of  a  vocation  to  religion,  sepa 
rates  from  the  rest  of  men,  to  consecrate  them 
to  the  exercises  of  penance  and  the  devotions  of 


THE   CLERGY  IN   THE   WORLD.  375 

solitude,  are  no  longer  accountable  to  the  world : 
called  to  weep,  in  secret,  before  the  Lord,  over 
their  own  sins,  or  the  sins  of  their  brethren, 
they  regard  the  things  that  are,  as  tho*  they 
were  not,  and  unknown  to  the  age,  they  live 
known  only  to  God  :  sicut  qui  ignoti  ct  cogniti* 
Their  lot  indeed  is  enviable:  their  consola 
tions  more  abundant ;  their  prayers  more  pure  ; 
the  truths  of  salvation  make  a  more  lively  im 
pression  ;  the  peace  of  the  heart  is  more  uni 
form  ;  innocence  less  exposed  ;  God  more  sensi 
bly  felt. 

But  we,  whom  the  grace  of  the  ministry,  con 
secrates  to  laborious  functions;  we  who  must 
mingle  with  the  multitude  as  a  leaven  of  bene 
diction,  destined  to  sanctify  the  whole  mass ;  we 
must  learn  to  live  piously  amidst  our  people  ; 
the  end  of  our  vocation  is  not  to  fly,  but  to 
save,  them.  Thus  we  see  in  the  gospel,  that 
Christ  gives  to  sinners,  a  ready  access  to  his 
person  ;  that  he  deigns  to  honour  their  houses 
and  even  their  tables  with  his  presence  ;  and  the 
calumnies  of  the  Pharisees  upon  his  conduct, 
are  at  once,  both  a  lesson  of  instruction  to  those 
of  us,  whose  irregularity  of  morals  is  justly 

*  2.  Co*,  c.  vi.  Y.  8. 


376  ON   THE    CONDUCT    OF 

visited  with  similar  reproaches,  and  a  consola 
tion  to  such  virtuous  ministers,  as  incur,  with 
out  deserving,  the  censures  of  the  world. 

I  confess,  as  I  stated  in  a  late  discourse,* 
that  we  have  every  thing  to  fear  from  an  inter 
course  with  men  ;  and  that  the  spirit  of  our  mi 
nistry  becomes  extinct,  amidst  the  vain  assem 
blies  and  the  licentious  conversations  of  world 
ling's.  Nevertheless,  as  our  duties  necessarily 
bring-  us  among  men,  it  would  be  of  little  use 
to  exhort  you  to  fly  the  world,  without  instruct 
ing  you,  at  the  same  time,  in  the  manner  in  which 
you  are  to  conduct  yourselves,  when  duty  calls 
you  to  it. 

The  importance  of  the  subject  claims  your 
earnest  attention;  for  upon  the  manner  in  which 
you  shall  enter  into  the  world,  depends  the  suc 
cess  of  your  functions,  the  honor  of  your  minis 
try,  the  fruit  of  your  clerical  education,  the  de 
cision  of  your  lot  for  eternity.  To  reduce  this 
discourse  to  two  simple  reflections,  we  have  on 
ly  to  examine,  first,  what  are  the  motives  that 
should  bring  us  among  men,  and  then  what  are 
the  rules  to  be  observed  that  our  converse  among 


*  Discourse    on   the  estrangement  of  the  clergy 
from  the  world. 


THE    CLERGY   IN   THE   WORLD.  377 

them  may  be  worthy  of  the  God  by  whom  we 
are  sent.     Let  us  unfold  the  first  reflection. 

FIRST    REFLECTION. 

I  suppose  first,  that  the  order  of  heaven  calls 
us  to  a  certain  place  ;  its  dangers  are  for  us 
much  less,  than  for  those  who  enter  it,  of  their 
own  choice,,  and  the  same  circumstances  in  which 
their  innocence  would  infallibly  perish,,  would 
for  us,  be  turned  into  occasions  of  merit  and 
means  of  salvation.  It  is  worthy  of  God,  that 
his  mercy  should  sustain  the  choice  which  his 
wisdom  has  made;  that  his  shield  should  co 
ver  those,  whom  he  himself  has  exposed,  that  he 
should  stretch  forth  his  hand,  as  he  did  to  Peter, 
to  those  who  tread  the  depths  of  the  abyss,  on 
ly  at  his  command  ;*  and  in  a  word  that  he 
should  not  refuse  his  protection  to  those,  who 
are  employed  in  doing*  only  his  own  work.  And 
his  conduct  in  this  particular,  is  so  certain,  that 
as  election  to  glory  is  but  a  preparation  of  the 
means  by  which  it  is  infallibly  attained,  so  we 
may  say,  that  the  peculiar  selections  which  he 
makes  for  certain  enterprises,  are  but  an  allot 
ment  of  the  particular  helps,  fitted  to  ensure 

*  Matthew,  c.  xiv.  v.  29.  &c. 


ON    THE   CONDUCT   OF 

their  success.  Thus  the  Prophet  that  came 
from  Judah  to  Bethel,  preserves  all  his  firmness 
before  an  impious  king,  to  whom  God  had  sent 
him,  and  he  cannot  guard  himself  from  the 
snares  of  a  false  Prophet,  to  whom  he  had  not 
been  authorized  to  speak.*  All  is  danger  for 
such,  as  expose  themselves,  and  danger  itself  is 
turned  into  security  for  those,  who  walk  only  at 
the  command  of  the  Lord.  This  truth  being 
supposed,  our  first  care  when  we  are  about  to 
appear  among  men,  should  be  to  ask  ourselves, 
whether  it  be  Cod  that  calls  us.  Now  the  order 
of  God  is  marked,  chiefly  in  the  views  which  we 
propose  to  ourselves.  Thus  to  know  whether 
we  are  guided  by  this  order,  when  we  enter  into 
the  world,  we  have  only  to  examine,  whether 
the  motives  that  lead  us  to  it,  are  worthy  of  God 
and  of  the  sanctity  of  our  ministry. 

Motives  may  be  distinguished  into  three  sorts: 
some  are  criminal,  others  indifferent,  and  finally, 
the  last  are  holy  and  religious.  You  will  agree, 
at  once,  that  the  world  can  be  nothing  but  a 
fatal  rock,  to  those  who  are  led  into  it,  by  cri 
minal  views;  and  who  having  entered  it  through 
sin,  can  find  in  it,  nothing  but  death.  This 

*3.  Kings,  c.  xiii. 


THE    CLERGY    IN    THE   WORLD.  379 

truth  needs  not  to  be  proved,  and  I  trust  in  the 
mercy  of  the  Lord,  that  it  does  not  regard  those 
who  now  hear  me.  You  have,  perhaps,  had 
but  a  too  mournful  experience  of  it,  when  be 
fore  entering'  into  this  place  of  retreat,  you  were 
yet  engaged  in  the  dangerous  follies  of  the  age  : 
Et  hcec  quidem  fulstis.  But  you  have  been, 
since  purified  ;  you  have  been  sanctified  by  the 
entire  renovation  of  your  conscience,  by  the  fre 
quent  participation  of  the  holy  mysteries,  by  the 
daily  exercise  of  prayer,  and  by  the  help  of  con 
stant  and  earnest  instructions  :  Sed  abluti  estis; 
sed  justificati  estis  :  you  have  been  consecrated 
to  God  and  to  his  altar  by  the  choice  of  a  holy 
state :  Sed  sanctificati  estis  ;*  and  it  is  not,  now, 
necessary  to  inspire  you  with  a  horror  of  the 
guilt  and  the  disorders  of  the  world,  but  to  for 
tify  you  in  the  practice  of  virtue  and  of  the  sa 
cred  duties  of  your  profession. 

The  second  motives  which  may  induce  us  to 
appear  in  the  world,  are  those  that  seem  to  us 
indifferent :  the  becoming  civilities  of  life  ;  the 
pleasure  of  intercourse,  which  it  is  so  difficult  to 
forego;  the  tendency  to  relaxation,  caused  by 
vivacity  of  temperament,  and  a  mind  little  fitted 

*1.  Cor.  c.  vi.  v.  11. 


380 


THE    CONDUCT    OF 


to  sustain  long,  the  pressure  of  (oil  and  the  se 
verity  of  retreat.  I  have  already  employed  an 
entire  discourse  in  combatting-  the  illusion  of 
those  motives  and  in  demonstrating  to  you,  their 
otter  incompatibility  with  the  spirit  of  our  mi 
nistry. 

You  will,  perhaps,  tell  me  that  you  cannot 
be  always  employed  in  serious  duties,  and  that 
the  more  painful  your  functions  are,  the  more 
do  you,  sometimes,  need  relaxation.  I  agree, 
that  there  are  innocent  and  even  necessary  re 
laxations;  that  the  sanctity  of  our  functions  leav 
ing  to  us,  still,  the  weaknesses  of  nature,  does 
not  forbid  us  to  recur  to  their  proper  remedy; 
that  too  long  and  too  severe  an  application  in 
jures  the  mind  which  it  revolts,  and  the  body 
which  it  exhausts,  and  that  in  fine,  there  are 
days  intended  for  the  repose  of  the  mind,  which 
if  I  may  be  allowed  to  say  so,  are  as  precious 
and  as  sacred,  as  those  which  religion  itself  has 
consecrated  to  the  repose  of  the  body. 

But  let  me  ask  you,  is  the  world  a  fit  place 
of  relaxation,  to  a  minister  of  Jesus  Christ? 
How  shall  we  sing,  said  the  children  of  the  cap 
tivity  to  the  inhabitants  of  Babylon,  how  shall 
we  sing  in  a  foreign  land,*  where  the  God  of 

*  Psalm.  136. 


THE   CLERGY    IN   THE    WORLD.  381 

o*ir  fathers  is  unknown,  where  the  covenant  is 
despised,  and  the  Prophets  without  honor;  where 
the  knee  is  bent,  and  the  sacrifice  ascends,  to 
vain  and  empty  idols,  and  where,  in  fine,  every 
thing  renews  the  memory  of  our  exile,  and 
awakens  the  desire  of  Si  on,  which  the  Lord  has 
given  to  us  for  an  inheritance  ?  What,  my  bre 
thren  ?  can  it  be  a  relaxation  to  us  to  see  reli 
gion  forgotten  or  contemned  ;  the  maxims  of 
Jesus  Christ  effaced  or  insulted  ;  God  unknown, 
disorders  become  matters  of  custom,  and  our 
brethren  for  whom  Christ  died,  perishing  before 
our  eyes  ?  Alas  !  what  does  the  world  present 
but  this  sad  spectacle?  David*  surrounded  with 
the  pleasures  of  royalty,  complained  that  his 
sojourn  was  too  much  prolonged:  the  Pro- 
phetf  asks  a  fountain  of  tears  that  he  may  weep 
over  the  excesses  of  Jerusalem  :  Moses^;  de 
sired  to  be  blotted  out  of  the  book  of  life,  that 
he  might  no  longer  witness  the  prevarications 
of  his  people;  Elias§  through  grief,  petition 
ed  to  die  in  the  wilderness,  because  all  Israel 
had  bent  the  knee  before  Baal;  and  we,  O  my 
<Jod!  the  successors  of  the  prophetic  ministry, 

*  Psalm.  119.  v.  5.  f  Jeremiah,  c.  ix.  v.  1. 

1  Exod.  o.  xxjtii.  v.  32.       §  3  Kings,  c.  xix. 


382 


ON   THE    CONDUCT    OF 


we  would  make  an  innocent  relaxation,  of  what 
has  made  thy  Prophets  and  thy  servants  weep 
in  every  age?  No,  my  brethren,  I  do  not  say^ 
that  if  we  can  find  any  pleasure  in  the  world, 
but  I  say,  that  if  we  can  even  behold  it,  with 
out  grief,  it  is  alas!  perhaps,  because  we  bear 
in  our  hearts  the  same  dispositions,  and  a  spring 
of  the  same  vices,  to  which  we  appear  so  indif 
ferent,  and  which  neither  alarm  nor  afflict  us 
in  others.  But  besides,  if  we  have  need  of  re 
laxation,  must  we  therefore  of  necessity,  seek  it 
among  worldlings  ?  Permit  me  to  address  you 
in  the  words,  which  the  Apostle  used  upon  ano 
ther  occasion;  what?  you  would  deem  it  im 
possible,  to  find  in  the  number  of  your  bre 
thren  and  colleagues  in  the  sacred  ministry,  a 
wise,  rational  and  agreeable  man,  of  edifying 
conversation  and  easy  manners,  in  whose  com 
pany  you  could  taste  the  pleasure  of  virtuous  so 
ciety  and  innocent  relaxation?  Sic  non  est  inter 
•cos  sapiens  quisquam  ?*  You  could  feel  no  joy, 
could  find  no  amusement  suited  to  your  taste, 
except  amongst  the  ungodly?  The  company  of  a 
pious  and  enlightened  Priest,  would  not  solace 
your  fatigues  nor  enliven  your  listlessness  ;  it 

*1.  Cor.  c.  vi.  T.  5. 


THE   CLERGY    IN  THE  WORLD.  -383 

would  be  a  burden  to  you  ?  you  must  then  have 
but  very  little  relish  indeed,  for  your  state,  since 
you  have  so  little  for  those,  who  are  an  honor 
to  it.  What?  so  many  respectable  ministers, 
consummate  in  the  science  of  the  church,  deeply 
versed  in  her  discipline  and  history,  adorned  be 
sides,  with  a  thousand  kinds  of  knowledge  the 
best  fitted,  to  furnish  entertainment  and  im 
prove  the  pleasures  of  society,  appear  to  you 
dull  and  insipid ;  and  you  prefer  calling*  the 
world  to  your  assistance  ;  and  you  can  find  no 
remedy  for  your  tedium  but  in  the  very  place, 
which  ought  rather  to  increase  it  and  render  it 
insupportable  ?  If  piety  and  regularity  disgust 
you  so  much  in  your  brethren,  how  much,  alas  ! 
is  it  to  be  feared,  that  they  are  a  troublesome 
burden  to  yourself :  if  it  be  so  irksome  and  so 
disagreeable  to  you,  to  frequent  the  company  of 
learned  and  virtuous  Priests,  how  infinitely  more 
so  must  it  be  to  you,  to  imitate  them  !  and  if 
nothing  but  the  world  can  cheer  or  unbend  your 
mind,  how  fairly  may  it  be  presumed,  that  the 
world  alone  occupies  your  heart ! 

But  moreover,  if  relaxations  can  be  innocent 
only  when  they  are  necessary,  and  when  they  fa 
cilitate  our  application  to  our  serious  and  essen- 


381 


ON    THE    CONDUCT    OF 


tial  duties ;  let  me  ask  you  whether  on  quitting- 
the  world  and  those  amusements,  which  you  call 
innocent,  you  feel  a  renovated  zeal  for  labor, 
and  an  increased  relish  for  study  and  prayer? 
are  you  in  a  better  condition,  to  sustain  the  se 
riousness  of  your  character  and  of  your  func 
tions;  to  devote  yourself  with  greater  courage, 
to  the  salvation  of  your  brethren,  to  enter  upon 
the  most  toilsome  and  the  most  disgusting  la 
bors,  and  approacli  the  altar  with  greater  fervor 
and  greater  recollection  ?  on  the  contrary,  is  it 
not  true,  that  you  bring  back  a  faint  and  cow 
ardly  spirit  that  looks  with  horror,  upon  labor 
and  pain ;  a  heart  relaxed  and,  now,  incapable  of 
relishing  any  thing  but  what  ilatters  it?  a  soul 
filled  with  vain  or  dangerous  images,  and  which 
every  thing  serious  begins  to  dissatisfy?  in  a 
word,  a  love  of  the  world,  which  is  disgusted 
with  every  thing  that  does  not  bespeak  the  feel 
ings  and  the  passions  of  the  world  ? 

In  fine,  although  all  those  inconveniences  were 
less  certain  than  they  are ;  yet  could  we  inno 
cently  seek  to  recreate  ourselves,  amidst  snares 
and  temptations  ?  can  there  be  innocence  where 
there  is  danger?  can  we  delight  ourselves,  where 
we  are,  every  moment,  liable  to  perish  ?  does 
the  pilot  ever  quit  the  port  and  regain  the  open 


THE    CLERGY    IN    THE   WORLD.  385 

sea  in  the  time  of  storm  and  tempest,  merely 
to  make  merry  and  refresh  himself,  after  the 
fatigues  of  a  long"  voyage?  Jonas  trembles,,  he 
retreats  and  flies  away  from  Nineveh;*  and  not 
withstanding  the  command  of  heaven,  he  dares 
not  expose  his  innocence,,  and  the  dignity  of  his 
ministry,  amidst  the  abominations  of  that  crimi 
nal  city  ;  and  we,  without  any  order  on  the  part 
of  God,,  would  enter  into  it  without  hesitation, 
merely  to  unbend  ourselves,  amidst  its  scandals 
and  disorders?  And  do  not  tell  me,,  that  all  those, 
who  live  in  the  world,  are  not  therefore  engaged 
in  its  vices,  and  that  there  are  to  be  found  in 
it,  wise  and  regular  individuals,  in  whose  com 
pany  we  may  enjoy  the  pleasures  of  innocent 
society.  It  is  thus  that  the  devil  seduces  us  ; 
and  that  not  daring  to  propose  guilt  to  us,  all 
at  once,  he  draws  us  gradually  into  the  snare, 
by  the  innocence  of  the  steps  which  he  en 
gages  us  to  take.  Yes,  my  brethren,  this  pre 
tended  wisdom  of  worldlins  is  still  more  dan 


gerous  to  us,  than  their  very  disorders.  We  are 
on  our  guard  against  gross  vices,  but  not  so, 
against  the  appearance  of  probity  and  virtue; 
we  trust  ourselves  to  them  without  scruple:  we 

*  Jonas.  c,i.  v.3, 


38(l  ON    THE    CONDUCT    OF 

fancy  ourselves  secure  with  persons  around 
whom,  indeed,,  every  thing-  breathes  the  spirit  of 
(he  world,  but  in  whose  conduct  nothing1  ap 
pears  disorderly  or  indecent.  Thus  their  easy 
maxims,  weaken  by  little  and  little,  our  idea 
of  our  duty ;  their  authority  shakes  us  ;  their 
manners  gain,  their  false  wisdom  seduces,  us:  by 
degrees,  we  form  for  ourselves  a  plan  of  life  more 
conformable  to  theirs,  and  in  proportion  as  we 
approach  them,  we  depart  from  the  sanctity  of 
our  duties  and  the  gravity  of  our  character. 
Now,  my  brethren,  as  you  well  know,  from  this, 
there  is  but  another  step  ;  for  when  we  forget 
the  dignity  of  our  state,  we  soon  forget  our 
selves.  Conclude  then,  from  all  these  reasons, 
that  the  motives,  which  induce  us  to  appear  in 
the  world,  cannot  be  innocent  unless  they  arc 
holy. 

Yes,  my  brethren,  it  is  motives  of  this  sort 
alone,  that  can  lead  the  ministers  of  Jesus  Christ, 
into  the  world,  with  safety  :  charity,  the  interests 
of  our  brethren,  the  indispensable  duties  of  our 
own  ministry.  Christ  appeared  in  the  cities  of 
Judea  only  to  do  the  will,  and  execute  the  work, 
of  his  Father.  If  he  gees  to  the  marriage  feast, 
it  is  but  to  manifest  his  power,  and  accredit  his 
doctrine  :  if  he  enters  the  house  of  the  publican, 


THE   CLERGY    IN    THE    WORLD,  387 

it  is  to  make  him  a  child  of  Abraham  :  if  he 
goes  up  to  Jerusalem,  at  the  solemn  festival.,  it 
is  not  to  exhibit  himself  to  the  gaze,  and  gain 
the  applause,  of  the  multitude,  according  to  the 
carnal  advice  of  his  relatives,  but  to  avenge  the 
honor  of  his  Father,  which  had  been  outraged 

y  o 

by  the  profanations  and  irreverences  committed 
in  the  holy  place.  When  he  sends  forth  his 
Apostles,  he  commands  them,  not  to  enter  any 
house,  except  for  the  purpose  of  bringing  in 
peace.  So  Peter  visits  Cornelius,  only  to  draw 
down  upon  him  and  upon  his  household,  the  vi 
sible  gifts  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  Paul  goes  to  the 
palace  of  Sergius  the  pro-consul,  solely  to  un 
deceive  him,  by  unmasking  the  impostures  of 
Elymas  the  magician,  and  to  strike  that  seducer 
with  blindness  :  he  appears  in  the  streets  of 
Athens,  only  to  preach  a  God  unknown  to  this 
superstitious  people  :  he  visits  the  brethren  of 
Macedonia  and  Illyrium,  only  to  impart  to  them, 
the  riches  of  spiritual  grace,  and  to  console  him 
self  with  them,  by  the  mutual  communications 
of  holy  faith.  The  beloved  Disciple  proposes 
t6  himself,  to  visit  the  holy  lady  Electa,  solely 
to  strengthen  her  in  the  faith,  the  charity  and 
the  doctrine,  of  Jesus  Christ ;  to  confirm  her 
against  the  artifices  of  false  teachers,  and  give 


388  ON    THE    CONDUCT    OF 

to  her  a  religious  consolation.  In  fine,  the  il 
lustrious  Baptist  tarries  in  the  court  of  Herod, 
only  to  reproach  the  dissoluteness  and  incestu 
ous  commerce  of  that  guilty  prince,,  and  to  tell 
him,  with  a  holy  firmness,  this  you  are  not  allow 
ed  to  do :  non  licet  libi. 

Behold  our  models  :  behold  the  only  motives 
that  ought  to  bring  a  Priest  into  the  world  :  we 
can  never  enter  it,  in  the  order  of  God,  unless  we 
enter  as  his  ministers,  and  to  enter  it  as  his  mi 
nisters,  we  must  hold  his  place  there,  and  do  his 
work.  But,  you  will  say,  to  reprove,  to  correct, 
to  exhort,  to  advise  those  with  whom  we  live  in 
the  world,  would  be  to  make  ourselves  odious 
and  importunate  ;  it  would  excite  a  disgust  of 
the  piety  which  we  wish  to  inspire,  and  expose 
us  to  the  risk  of  rendering  our  zeal  both  ridicu 
lous  and  contemptible.  And  it  is  for  this  very 
reason,  my  brethren,  that  a  minister  of  Jesus 
Christ,  is  out  of  his  proper  place,  in  the  world  : 
it  is  for  this  very  reason  that  he  cannot  appear 
there  frequently,  without  finding  himself  com 
pelled,  either  to  applaud  the  errors  of  worldlings, 
by  his  silence,  or  to  render  himself  troublesome 
and  ridiculous,  by  reproving  them :  for  this  rea 
son,  it  is,  that  we  ought  not  to  appear  in  it,  un 
less  when  duty  calls  and  authorizes  us  to  dis- 


THE    CLERGY    IN    THE    WORLD.  38i) 

charge  our  ministry.,  to  enforce  the  truth,  to 
gainsay  vice,  to  announce  the  words  of  salvation. 
We  become  useless  to  the  world  by  frequenting 
it,  and  for  this  reason  alone,,  it  ought  to  be  for 
bidden  to  us.  We  forfeit  the  right  and  the  au 
thority  which  our  character  gives  us,,  to  repre 
hend  it,  and  thereby  render  the  truth  contempt 
ible  to  it,  in  our  mouth  :  can  consequences  so 
mournful,  so  humiliating  to  us,  so  disgraceful 
to  our  character,  become  an  excuse  for  our  con 
duct?  Can  we  alledge  the  inutility  of  our  remon 
strances  against  the  vices  of  worldlings,  with 
out  saying  to  ourselves,  that  the  world  is  not  our 
proper  place  ?  and  are  we  hence  to  suppose,  that 
we  may  be  the  continual  and  innocent  spectators 
of  their  disorders,  without  noticing  them,  lest  we 
should  render  ourselves  hateful  and  importunate; 
or  rather  ought  we  not  to  conclude,  that  it  is  our 
duty  to  fly  them,  since  the  only  means  of  being- 
useful  to  them  and  of  reproving  them  with  suc 
cess,  is  to  see  them  rarely?  When  the  envoy 
of  a  prince  appears  invested  with  the  authority 
of  his  sovereign,  and  discharges  the  functions 
of  his  legation,  he  is  listened  to  with  respect  ; 
he  may  treat  of  important  affairs,  nor  is  any  man 
offended,  on  hearing  him  announce  the  com 
mands,  and  the  wishes,  of  his  master  :  his  cha- 


390  ON   THE   CONDUCT    OF 

racter  places  his  person  in  security,  even  in  the 
midst  of  his  enemies.  But  from  the  moment  that 
he  Jays  aside  his  office,  and  that  he  appears  only 
as  an  ordinary  man,  things  are  clianged  in  his 
regard  :  he  speaks  without  authority  ;  he  is  no 
longer  heard,  or  is  heard  without  attention  ;  he 
has  no  right  to  treat  of  serious  affairs,  and  even 
his  person  and  his  life  are  no  longer  in  safety ; 
similar  is  our  destiny.  We,  according  to  the 
Apostle,  are  the  ambassadors  of  Christ :  Pro 
Christo  legations  fungimur*  Whilst  we  ap 
pear  in  the  world,  clothed  with  this  august  cha 
racter  and  fulfil  its  sacred  functions,  the  world 
hears  us  with  respect  and  awe  :  we  speak  with 
authority,  to  men  :  we  have  a  right  to  announce 
to  them,  the  truths  of  the  master  whose  envoys 
we  are,  and  although  we  may  be  exposed  to  the 
snares  and  treachery  of  a  world,  the  enemy  of 
Jesus  Christ,  our  soul  is  yet  in  security.  But 
from  the  moment  that  we  put  off  this  sacred  and 
venerable  character,  that  we  cease  to  discharge 
its  functions,  and  that  we  appear  in  the  world, 
like  the  rest  of  men,  we  lose  all  our  authority; 
we  have  no  right  to  speak  to  them,  in  the  name 
of  a  master,  who  no  longer  sends  us :  scarce  do 

*2.  Cor.  c.  v.  \er.  20. 


THE   CLERGY    IN    THE   WORLD.  391 

they  deign  to  hear  us :  we  forfeit  all  peculiar 
claim  to  their  attention  and  respect,  nor  is  there 
now,  any  protection  for  us  against  the  dangers 
by  which  we  are  encompassed.  And  what  could 
be  our  protection?  We  walk  in  the  midst  of 
perils,  where  the  Lord  does  not  send  us,  and 
whither  he  does  not  follow  us ;  where  he  neither 
watches  over  our  weakness,  nor  supports  our 
tottering  steps.  What  are  we,  thus  abandon 
ed!  we  are,  says  Saint  Jude,  as  a  ship  tossed 
on  a  stormy  and  rocky  sea,  without  pilot  or  helm; 
as  a  child  scarce  able  to  walk,  which  plays  with 
out  support,  on  the  brink  of  a  precipice  ;  as  a 
bird,  yet  weak,  says  the  Prophet,  which  quits 
the  nest  and  tries  to  fly,  before  its  wings  are 
yet  strong,  and  which  must  become  the  prey  of 
the  first  that  passes  by. 

The  inviolable  rule  then,  whenever  we  are 
about  to  mingle  amongst  men,  is,  to  examine 
before  God,  whether  it  be  their  spiritual  interest 
that  moves  us :  to  ask  ourselves,  will  God  be 
glorified  by  this  conduct?  Is  it  his  work  that 
I  am  going  to  execute?  is  it  my  duty  that  I 
propose  to  myself?  is  it  the  charity,  which  seeks 
to  console  the  afflicted,  to  strengthen  the  weak, 
to  be  edified  with  the  just,  to  convert  sinners? 
i$  it  a  zeal  to  mature  in  private,  the  tVuits  of 


392  ON   THE   CONDUCT    OF 

some  public  labor  :  to  uphold  an  incipient  con 
version,  by  holy  and  seasonable  exhortation ;  to 
calm  domestic  strife  by  the  soothing-  admonitions 
of  meekness  and  wisdom  ;  to  reconcile  parents 
to  their  children,  to  bring  back  the  husband's 
heart  to  his  tender  spouse,  and  diffuse  joy  and 
charity,  and  the  peace  of  Jesus  Christ,  wherever 
we  go  ?  Is  it  the  priestly  solicitude,  which  takes 
a  part  in  every  work  of  piety  and  mercy;  which 
goes  about  to  controul  licentiousness,  to  reform 
public  abuses,  to  place  exposed  innocence  in  safe 
ty,  or  hide  the  scandal  of  its  fall  from  the  eyes 
of  the  people?  Is  it  the  Christian  prudence  which 
docs  homage  to  authority,  to  render  it  ancillary 
to  the  designs  of  God  ;  which  pays  respect  to 
the  great,  to  make  them  the  protectors  of  truth, 
or  at  least,  to  prevent  them  from  favouring  er 
ror  and  opposing  the  work  of  the  gospel ;  which 
renders  to  all  our  brethren  the  indispensable 
duties  of  society,  that  we  may  avoid  wounding 
their  pride,  and  may  at  the  same  time,  gain  their 
esteem  by  innocent  attentions  ;  that,  in  a  word, 
we  may  not  become  useless,  by  first  rendering 
ourselves  odious?  We  have,  here,  only  to  avoid 
illusion :  not  to  conceal  our  own  inclinations 
under  an  exterior  of  piety  ;  nor  mistake  the  cra 
vings  of  a  restless,  a  curious  and  unmortified  dis- 


THE    CLERGY    IN   THE   WORLD.  393 

position,  inimical  to  prayer  and  retirement,,  for 
the  impulses  of  charity  and  zeal.  We  must  not 
confound  the  desire  of  appearing-  in  public,  of 
pleasing,  and  of  gaining  confidence  and  esteem., 
with  the  charity  which  seeks  only  to  edify  :  we 
must  not  confound  the  presumption  which  inter 
meddles  in  every  thing,  the  ostentation  which 
wishes  to  appear  in  every  public  transaction, 
the  complacency  which  looks  for  the  honor  at 
tached  to  good  works,  the  restlessness  which 
seeks  only  to  appear;  with  the  zeal  which  seeks 
only  to  be  useful :  we  must  not  confound  the 
Christian  prudence  which  cultivates  the  good 
will  of  the  great,  only  to  render  them  favourable 
to  the  church ;  with  the  secret  ambition  which 
seeks  only  to  render  them  favourable  to  our 
selves:  in  fine,  we  must  not  confound  those  at 
tentions  which  we  pay  to  worldlings,  that  we 
may  not  wound  their  pride,  nor  estrange  them 
from  us;  with  those  duties  which  we  render 
them,  only  to  increase  their  vanity  by  our  base 
adulation,  and  conciliate  their  esteem,  by  our 
forbearance  and  servility.  So  easy  is  it  to  de 
ceive  ourselves  in  this  regard !  to  mistake  our 
own  desires,  for  the  interests  of  piety,  and  per 
suade  ourselves  that  we  are  seeking  God,  whilst 
in  fact,  we  are  seeking  only  ourselves. 


ON    THE  CONDUCT    OF 

And  hence,  my  brethren,  the  little  success  of 
our  functions.  Our  zeal,  far  from  bringing  back 
sinners  to  the  pathg  of  virtue,  furnishes  them 
with  matter  of  derision  and  censure  against  us : 
our  charity  appears  to  them,  rather  a  desire  to 
please,  than  to  serve,  them  :  our  readiness  to  en 
gage  in  every  thing,  rather  a  restless  disposi 
tion,  an  abhorrence  of  repose,  than  a  love  of 
virtue;  our  cringing  assiduities  annoy  and  im 
portune  them,  whilst  they  lower  and  degrade 
ourselves.  Not  but  that  the  world  sometimes 
forms  the  like  judgment  of  the  most  faithful 
ministers,  and  exercises  towards  them,  similar 
injustice  :  but  it  is  the  defects  which  I  am  now 
blaming,  and  which  it  has  so  often  witnessed, 
that  have  given  rise  to  its  rash  suspicions  :  it 
imputes  to  all,  the  weaknesses  of  some  ;  and  be 
cause  it  has  often  seen  zeal  misguided  and  equi 
vocal,  it  concludes  without  further  inquiry,  that 
all  zeal  is  unsteady  and  insincere.  Thus,  my 
brethren,  let  us  not  confirm  the  world  in  its  un 
just  prejudices  against  us  :  let  us  rather  com 
pel  it  to  acknowledge  the  wisdom  and  holiness 
of  our  conduct ;  to  confess,  that  the  desire  alone 
of  its  salvation,  directs  and  animates  us ;  that 
our  glory  is  not  that,  which  comes  of  men,  but 
that  which  men  render  unto  God ;  that  the  sole 


THE   CLERGY   IN    THE   WORLD,  395 

recompence  we  seek,  is  the  fruit  which  our  bre 
thren  may  gather  from  our  labors,,  not  the  empty 
praise  which  they  lavish  on  our  actions;  that 
our  views  are  as  sublime  and  as  pure,  as  our 
functions  are  elevated  and  holy ;  and  that  if  we 
appear  among  them,  'tis  but  to  combat  their 
passions,  not  to  exhibit  our  own.  Such  are 
the  motives  that  should  lead  us  to  appear  in 
the  world:  and  here  follow  the  rules  which 
we  ought  to  observe,  whilst  we  are  engaged 
in  it. 

SECOND    REFLECTION. 

Although  the  purity  of  our  motives  decides,  al 
most  always,  on  the  whole  tenor  of  our  actions; 
and  although  whilst  the  eye  is  simple  and  clear 
the  whole  body  of  our  conduct  is  lightsome,  ne 
vertheless,  as  we  might  easily  deceive  ourselves, 
as  to  the  views  on  which  we  act;  and  as  be 
sides,  through  the  weakness  and  mutability  of 
the  human  heart,  the  most  holy  intentions  are 
often  forgotten  in  practice,  and  weakened  or 
suspended  by  accidents  or  snares,  which  could 
not  be  foreseen,  it  is  of  importance  to  explain 
here,  those  precautions,  which  should  accom 
pany  us  into  the  world,  even  when  our  motives 
for  appearing  in  it,  are  the  most  holy ;  and  to 


396 


ON    THE    CONDUCT    OF 


establish  certain  rules  to  be  observed  in  the  in 
tercourse,  which  our  functions  may  oblige  us  to 
have  with  men. 

Now,  it  appears  to  me,  that  all  that  can  be  said 
on  this  subject,  may  be  referred  to  these  two 
points  :  the  persons  to  be  avoided  ;  the  rules  to 
be  followed  towards  those,  whom  we  are  per 
mitted  to  see.  The  persons  to  be  avoided  are  ; 
first,  those  to  whom  we  can  be  of  no  use ;  se 
condly,  those  who  may  be  dangerous  to  us;  third 
ly,  those  to  whom  our  cares  are  not  due ;  fourth 
ly,  those  to  whom  they  cannot  be  rendered  with 
out  scandal.  The  subject  is  truly  important ;  do 
not  refuse  me  your  whole  attention. 

I  say  first,  the  persons  to  whom  we  can  be  of 
no  use.  For  if  nothing  but  zeal  for  the  salva 
tion  of  our  brethren,  ought  to  conduct  us  into 
the  world,  it  is  clear  that  we  should  have  no 
intercourse  with  persons,  in  whose  regard,  our 
labors  can  produce  no  fruit.  Wherever  religion 
is  despised,  piety  disregarded  or  misunderstood, 
and  the  very  appearance  of  a  virtuous  man,  dis 
agreeable  and  importunate,  there,  a  minister  of 
Jesus  Christ  can  have  no  just  reason  to  appear : 
wherever  vice  must  be  applauded,  error  uncen- 
surcd,  where  we  must  close  our  eyes  upon  scan 
dals,  or  perhaps  even  approve  them  ;  in  a  word, 


THE   CLERGY    IN    THE   WORLD.  397 

wherever  the  word  of  the  Lord  is  bound  up, 
where  the  pearls  would  be  cast  before  unclean 
animals,,  there  a  Priest,  that  is  to  say,  a  man  of 
God,  is  out  of  his  place,  and  there  religion  is 
insulted  by  his  very  presence.  Christ  withdraws 
from  Nazareth,  and  no  longer  appears  among-  its 
inhabitants,  because  in  his  own  country,  he  was 
a  Prophet  without  honor.  The  Apostles  shook 
the  dust  from  their  feet,  and  promptly  quitted 
those  houses  and  cities,  in  which  there  was  no 
child  of  peace  to  be  found,  and  in  which  the 
truth  of  the  gospel  could  make  no  impression. 
Not,  that  when  there  is  question  of  our  func 
tions,  we  must  be  sure  of  success,  before  we 
exercise  them,  or  that  the  presumption  or  even 
the  certainty,  that  they  will  be  of  no  use,  can 
be  a  lawful  excuse  for  omitting  them  altogether. 
The  sower  scatters  the  holy  seed,  as  well  upon 
the  stony  and  barren  soil,  where  it  produces 
nothing,  as  upon  the  good  ground,  where  its  in 
crease  is  a  hundred  fold.  The  Lord  sends  his 
Prophets  and  his  ministers  as  well  for  the  con 
demnation  of  some,  as  for  the  instruction  and 
conversion  of  others  ;  as  well  to  complete  the 
blindness  of  those,  who  will  not  see,  as  to  open 
the  eyes  of  those,  who  desire  and  seek  the  truth ; 
aad  if  the  gospel,  in  its  progress,  had  not  io 


398  ON   THE    CONDUCT    OF 

meet  and  contend  with  hardened  and  rebelli 
ous  hearts,  the  church  would  have  never  had  her 
confessors  and  martyrs.  The  contradictions  and 
obstacles,,  which  the  world  opposes  to  our  zeal, 
as  they  are  in  the  order  of  God,  far  from  sub 
duing,  should  only  encourage  and  uphold,,  our 
generous  efforts  :  they  are  promised  to  the  dis 
charge  of  our  functions,  and  the  Apostle  regard 
ed  them  as  the  most  glorious  and  authentic  proof 
of  his  Apostleship.  It  is  necessary  that  the 
scriptures  be  fulfilled,  and  that  the  wisdom  of 
the  world  be  to  the  end,  the  enemy  of  the  wis 
dom  of  the  cross:  the  question,  then,  in  this 
place,  is  not  touching  the  functions  of  our  mi 
nistry,  but  one  that  solely  regards  our  commerce 
and  our  intimacies  with  men.  Our  ministry,  we 
owe  to  all,  to  the  foolish  as  well  as  to  the  wise, 
according  to  the  example  of  the  Apostle:  it  is 
for  God  alone  to  give  the  increase,  by  rendering 
it  useful  to  our  brethren  :  but  the  familiarity  of 
our  presence  and  society,  we  owe  to  those  only, 
whom  it  may  tend  to  edify.  Alas  !  what,  in  ef 
fect,  could  justify  our  friendships  with  men  in 
toxicated  by  their  pleasures  and  their  passions : 
friendships,  which  can  have  no  other  effect  than 
to  increase  their  contempt  for  virtue,  and  aggra 
vate  their  guilt  and  their  condemnation  i  thus 


THE    CLERGY    IN   THE    WORLD.  399 

by  a  rule  so  just  and  reasonable,  of  forming-  no 
connexion  with  persons  to  whom  we  must  be 
useless,  how  many  pretences  of  duty,  how  many 
occasions  of  intercourse  with  the  world,  at  once 
cut  off? 

Second  rule:  to  avoid  those  who  may  be  dan 
gerous  to  us.  Alas  !  how  many  of  this  charac 
ter  ;  either  from  the  bent  or  the  ascendancy  of 
their  minds,  the  propensities  of  their  heart,  the 
tendency  and  spirit  of  their  profession,  or  the 
blandishments  of  their  sex.  From  the  bent  of 
their  minds:  certain  rash  and  daring  spirits  there 
are,  who  blaspheme  what  they  do  not  under 
stand;  regarding-  the  majestic  authority  of  faith, 
as  a  popular  credulity  ;  led  astray  by  their  own 
thoughts;  affecting  a  language  of  their  own  ; 
treating  whatever  is  most  august  and  terrific, 
in  the  doctrine  of  Jesus  Christ,  with  derision  ; 
priding  themselves  on  a  force  of  intellect  and 
superiority  of  reason,  peculiar  to  themselves; 
and  not  perceiving  that  the  true  source  of  their 
incredulity,  is  to  be  found,  rather  in  the  cor 
ruption  of  their  hearts,  than  in  the  boasted 
strength  of  their  superior  understanding :  Et 
hos  devita*  writes  Saint  Paul  to  his  disciple, 

*2.  Tim.  t,'.  iii.  v.  5. 


400 


ON    THE    CONDUCT    OF 


Men  of  this  character  have  been  multiplied,  in 
these  latter  times,  and  with  them,  the  evils  and 
the  scandals  of  the  church  have  increased ;  and 
whilst  pastors  are  contending  among  themselves, 
on  the  most  abstract  truths  of  faith,  these  im 
pious  men,  profit  of  their  divisions,  to  attack  its 
very  principle,  and  tear  up  the  foundation  laid 
by  Christ  himself;  and  their  words  uttered  in 
secret,  like  a  noxious  poison,  gain  insensibly,  and 
carrying  infection  all  around,  spread  scepticism, 
blasphemy,  and  irreligion  over  the  land.  But 
not  these  alone  should  be  as  so  many  anathe 
mas,  in  our  eyes  ;  there  is  still,  my  brethren, 
another  sort  of  men  to  be  met  in  the  world,  who 
arc  dangerous  to  us,  by  the  ascendancy  of  their 
talents  and  their  wit :  worldlings,  who  possessing 
a  natural  eloquence,  and  superior  endowments 
of  mind,  assume  a  ready  empire  over  all  who  ap 
proach  them;  they  disturb,  confound,  persuade, 
and  drag  along  all,  in  their  course;  they  abuse 
the  gifts  of  God  and  an  unhappy  sprightliness 
and  lluency,  to  turn  virtue  into  ridicule,  to  give 
to  vice  the  features  of  innocence,  to  justify  the 
passions,  to  weaken  the  truths  of  salvation,  or  at 
least,  to  detract  from  whatever  religion  teaches 
to  be  important  upon  the  subject;  to  censure 
the  most  essential  duties,  as  excessive,  foolish, 


THE    CLERGY    IN    TIJE    WORLD.  401 

or  impracticable  :  the  eternal  apologists  of  the 
world  and  of  its  disorders ;  the  enemies  of  the 
doctrine  and  of  the  cross  of  Jesus  Christ ;  men 
who  live  in  the  world,,  as  if  the  gospel  had 
changed  nothing,  as  if  the  world  were  still  to 
be  our  law ;  who  give  an  air  of  ridicule  and 
meanness  to  whatever  does  not  resemble  them 
selves;  Apostles  of  the  world  and  of  the  devil; 
and  who,  from  the  charm  which  their  facility  and 
wit  spread  over  their  conversation,  are  desired, 
sought,  and  received  every  where,  with  distinc 
tion  ;  are  the  delight  and  ornament  of  worldly 
assemblies,  have  a  ready  access  to  the  palaces  of 
the  great;  and  in  every  place  multiply  the  fol 
lowers,  and  perpetuate  among  men,  the  corrupt 
doctrines,  of  the  world.  Such  are  the  persons 
whom  we  ou^ht  to  fear  on  account  of  the 

o 

bent  or  the  ascendancy  of  their  talents  or  their 
wit. 

On  account  of  the  propensities  of  their  hearts, 
we  must  avoid  the  commerce  of  certain  effemi 
nate,  soft  and  voluptuous  men,  dead  or  indiffe 
rent  to  every  thing  but  pleasure  ;  eternally  oc 
cupied  in  amusements ;  incapable  of  any  thing- 
great,  serious  or  solid,  worthy  either  of  a  Chris 
tian  or  a  man ;  and  the  more  to  be  feared,  be 
cause  their  dispositions  are  mild,  their  manners 


402  ON   THE   CONDUCT   OF 

open  and  engaging,  their  hearts  tender,  frank 
and  capable  of  attachment,  and  because  the  pla 
cid  tenor  of  their  easy  and  inactive  lives,  is  the 
most  likely  to  insinuate  itself  into  our  affections, 
to  enervate  and  corrupt  us  by  the  love  of  repose, 
and  by  rendering  all  labor  and  constraint  insup 
portable.  Of  all  the  perils  by  which  our  path  is 
beset,  there  is  none  more  fatal  to  the  spirit  of 
our  ministry,  than  the  intimacy  or  the  society  of 
men  of  this  character. 

On  account  of  the  tendency  and  spirit  of  their 
profession.  Yes,  my  brethren,  above  all,  shun 
those  worldly  and  dissipated  ministers,  to  whom 
the  relations  of  the  same  profession,  would  seem, 
in  appearance,  to  unite  you  the  more :  the  grace 
of  the  imposition  of  hands,  is  extinct  in  their 
souls,  and  the  attempt,  on  your  part,  to  revive 
it,  would  infallibly  weaken  and  extinguish  your 
own.  They  are,  in  the  world,  the  opprobrium 
of  the  sacred  ministry :  do  not,  you,  add  to  the 
shame  and  disgrace  of  the  church  by  associating 
with  them  ;  rather  vindicate  her  dignity  and  her 
cause,  by  carefully  avoiding  their  society :  ra 
ther  disavow  their  disorders,  by  an  entire  sepa 
ration,  than  countenance  their  scandals,  by  fre 
quenting  their  company  :  shc\v  to  the  world, 
that  the  church  does  not  acknowledge  them  as 


THE    CLERGY    IN    THE    WORLD.  403 

her  ministers,    and  that  by  dishonouring  their 
profession,   they   have  rendered   themselves  un 
worthy  of  all  intercourse  with  those,  who  respect 
their  calling,  and  glory  in  the  character  of  the 
priesthood.  Cover  them  with  confusion,  by  keep 
ing  them  at  a  distance,  that  the  disgrace  of  this 
anathema,  may  cause  them  to  enter  into  them 
selves,  or  at  least,  may  accustom  the  world  to 
despise  them,  by  teaching  it,   that  although,  in 
deed,  they  have  gone  forth  from  us,  they  are  no 
longer  of  us :  and  never  forget  that  their  society 
is  the   most  effectual   means   which  the  enemy 
could  employ,  to  annihilate   in  you,,  all  zeal  for 
your  functions,  and  extinguish  the  very  spirit  of 
your  vocation.     The    Prophet  whom  I  have  al 
ready  mentioned,  preserved  his  dignity  and  his 
innocence  amidst  the  dangers  of   the  court  of 
Samaria,   yet  on  quitting  it,  the  converse  of  a 
sfngle  false  Prophet,  causes  him  to  fall.     The 
world  has  not  yet,  at  least,   lost  all  respect  for 
our  consecration,    and  some  lingering  remains 
of  modesty  and  decency,  still  restrain  us,  and  ob 
lige  us  to  keep  within  certain  bounds,  before  it, 
that    we    may    not    render   ourselves   altogether 
contemptible.      But   in   the   company    of  those 
who  are  united  with  us,  in  the  same  ministry, 
there  is  no  longer  any  thing  to  controul  us  :  the 


404- 


ON    THE    CONDUCT    OP 


example  of  their  profanations  fills  us  with  con 
fidence  ;  we  no  longer  fear  the  presence  of  wit 
nesses,  who  are  our  models  in  vice  and  our  ac 
complices  in  guilt.  The  first  sentiment  with 
which  they  inspire  us,  is  a  contempt  for  our 
state,  is  to  shake  off  the  yoke  of  discipline,  and 
the  little  constraint  which  even  the  \vorld  im 
poses  on  us ;  to  ridicule  the  piety,  the  regula 
rity  and  zeal  of  our  brethren  ;  to  recal  with  de 
rision,  the  instructions  which  we  received  in  this 
holy  place  ;  in  a  word,  to  add  effrontery  and 
impudence  to  disorder,  and  no  longer  to  fear 
either  God  or  man.  Their  society  is  the  more 
dangerous  to  us  on  this  account,  that  on  our 
entrance  into  the  world,  we  think  it  the  most 
becoming  and  the  most  suitable  to  us;  that  the 
game  profession,  oftentimes  the  same  education., 
and  connexions  made  in  early  life,  had  already- 
united  us ;  and  that  being  a  society  which  we 
find  already  formed,  it  spares  us  the  trouble  of 
seeking  any  other. 

But  if  identity  of  calling,  is  turned  into  a 
enare  for  us,  difference  of  state  is  not  less  dan 
gerous;  and  in  the  number  of  persons  whose 
commerce  must  be  injurious  to  us,  on  account 
of  their  profession,  we  must  reckon  those,  who 
from  the  engagements  and  habits  of  a  military 


THE   CLERGY    IN    THE   WORLD.  405 

life.,  so  opposed  to  the  meekness  and  sanctity  of 
ours.,  feel  only  a  thirst  of  tumult  and  slaughter., 
desires  of  glory,,  of  elevation  and  fortune.,  and 
recognise  neither  honor  nor  merit,  save  that 
which  springs  from  valor  and  the  sword.  They 
view  with  contempt,  the  tranquillity  of  the  sanc 
tuary,  the  modesty,  the  simplicity  and  gentleness 
of  the  Priesthood :  whatever  does  not  breathe 
fire  and  carnage,  whatever  breathes  only  the 
sweetness  and  charity  of  Jesus  Christ,  appears 
to  them,  cowardice  and  baseness  of  spirit.  The 
holy  repose  of  the  temple  and  the  altar,  the  sa 
cred  canticles,  the  praises  of  the  Lord,  the  pub 
lic  supplications  which  are,  every  day,  carried 
to  the  foot  of  his  throne,  to  implore  and  bring 
down  his  mercy  upon  nations  and  upon  kings, 
upon  cities  and  armies,  are,  in  their  mind,  tame 
and  inglorious  concerns  ;  and  the  inheritance  of 
those,  who  consecrate  themselves  to  the  cliurcb, 
they  regard  as  the  portion  of  the  worthless  and 
the  fainthearted.  They  imagine  that  men  were 
made,  only  to  destroy  one  another;  that  it  is  far 
more  glorious  to  desolate,  than  to  sanctify,  pro 
vinces  ;  far  more  honourable  to  man,  to  inflict 
death,  than  to  bestow  life  and  salvation  on  his 
brethren;  and  that  without  war  and  bloodshed, 
there  would  be  no  real  virtue  in  the  \vorld,  al- 


406 


ON    THE    CONDUCT    OF 


though  it  is  in  the  ruthless  and  sanguinary  strug 
gle  of  armies,  that  almost  all  the  vices  ar.d  all  the 
calamities  of  the  earth  have  their  source.  Thus, 
forming  ourselves,  by  degrees,  to  their  senti 
ments,  we  begin  to  esteem  our  own  state,  less;  it 
appears  to  us,  mean  and  obscure,  and  we  would 
again  wish  to  be  the  arbiters  of  our  destiny,  that 
we  might  change  the  ornaments  of  the  Priest, 
for  the  arms  of  the  soldier :  we  imagine  that  our 
friends  have  put  us  in  the  wrong  place,  when 
they  dedicated  us  to  the  altar ;  that  they  con 
sulted  their  own  interests,  rather  than  our  ta 
lents  or  inclinations,  and  that  to  secure  the  for 
tune  of  an  elder  brother,  they  have  betrayed 
and  blasted  ours.  So  there  are,  every  day,  to  be 
seen,,  in  the  world,  ministers  of  religion  more 
versed  in  the  rules  and  tactics  of  war,  than  in 
the  rules  and  duties  of  their  profession  ;  better 
acquainted  with  the  bloody  encounters,  that  have 
shook  the  world,  than  with  the  errors  and  false 
doctrines,  that  have  rent  the  church ;  more  alive 
to  what  passes  in  camps  and  armies,  than  to 
what  passes  in  the  sanctuary,  and  under  the  sa 
cred  habit,  bearing  on  their  person  and  their 
countenance,  the  boldness,  fierceness  and  dissi 
pation  of  persons  engaged  in  a  profane,  military 
career.  Such  are  the  persons  whose  society 


THE    CLERGY    IN   THE   WORLD.  407 

and  converse  must  be  fatal  to  us,  on  account 
of  the  tendency  and  spirit  of  their  profession. 

In  fine,  on  account  of  the  blandishments  of 
their  sex,  and  this  is  the  most  perilous  rock  of 
our  ministry.  A  Priest,,  says  Saint  Jerome, 
ought  to  have  a  chastity  and  modesty,  peculiarly 
his  own  :  so  that  not  only  his  body  be  exempt 
from  stain,  but  that  his  eyes  preserve  that  entire 
innocence,,  so  necessary  to  prepare  him  to  wit- 
ness  what  passes  in  the  Holy  of  Holies ;  and  that 
his  mind,  intent  only  on  the  august  and  ter 
rific  prodigies  which  his  ministry  operates  on 
the  altar,  be  free  even  from  those  involuntary 
images  of  vice,  which  might  disturb  the  tran 
quillity  of  his  soul.  Moreover,  we,  like  Jesus 
Christ,  are  anointed  and  holy  to  the  Lord,  and 
thus  whatever  is  not  holy,  a  single  indiscreet 
look,  a  single  unguarded  word,  a  single  inde^ 
cency  of  manner,  one  carnal  feeling  not  prompt 
ly  stifled,  one  sensual  complacency,  a  single 
wish  too  human,  defiles  and  profanes  us.  Now 
this  angelical  purity,  which  must  be  the  fruit  of 
retreat,  of  prayer,  of  watchfulness  and  mortifica 
tion,  this  treasure  which  we  carry  in  vessels  so 
frail,  how  shall  we  preserve  it,  amidst  dangers  and 
rocks,  where  it  is  every  day,  so  miserably  ship 
wrecked?  If  in  such  perils,  the  ordinary  chas-r 


408  ON    THE    CONDUCT    OF 

tity  enjoined  to  every  Christian,  would  surely 
perish,  how  shall  the  Priest  be  able  to  save  that 
privileged  and  sacerdotal  chastity,  which  is  far 
more  eminent,  far  more  easily  vitiated,  and  so 
tender,  so  delicate,  that  a  single  breath  is  suffi 
cient  to  tarnish  all  its  splendor,  and  all  its  beau 
ty  ?  For,  my  brethren,  if  the  sacred  character, 
which  imposes  on  us  the  high  obligation  of  pu 
rity  and  innocence,  in  stamping  our  soul  with 
the  seal  of  the  holy  ministry,  had  done  away  the 
fatal  corruption,  which  the  fall  of  Adam  has  en 
tailed  on  all;  if,  in  becoming  Priests,  we  had 
ceased  to  be  weak  and  frail  men  ;  if  the  sacred 
unction  had  extinguished  that  unholy  fire  which 
since  the  first  sin,  flows  through  man's  veins 
with  his  blood,  we  might  flatter  ourselves  that 
the  privilege  of  our  character,  placed  us  in  safe 
ty,  and  that  what  might  be  dangerous  for  the 
rest  of  the  faithful,  presented  nothing  that  ought 
to  excite  our  just  alarms.  But,  alas !  we  have 
within  us,  the  same  fund  of  weakness  and  cor 
ruption,  as  the  rest  of  men ;  nay,  we  carry  about 
us  the  same  frailties,  whilst  we  are  deprived  of 
the  same  resources;  and  our  character,  far  from 
inspiring  us  with  confidence,  ought  to  increase 
our  fears,  as  it  augments  our  danger:  the  obli 
gation  by  which  it  binds  us  to  continence,  pro- 


THE    CLESGY    IN   THE   WORLD,  409 

yokes  and  stimulates  the  passions  of  the  flesh  ; 
and  deprived  by  the  sanctity  of  our  state  of  that 
remedy,  which  may  serve  to  controul  them  in 
other  men,  we  have  nothing  but  flight  and  pray 
er  to  oppose  to  their  fury  :  our  sole  remedy  is 
in  piety  and  faith ;  in  the  rig-id  guard  of  the 
senses,  which  if  suspended  or  neglected,  for  a 
moment,  we  are  undone :  as  we  bear  with  us, 
livelier  passions  into  scenes  of  trial  and  dan 
ger,  we  must  inevitably  find  in  them,  sin  and 
death.  All  then  is  peril  for  a  Priest,  in  the  so 
ciety  of  the  other  sex,  nor  can  those  visits  and 
assiduities  which  the  world  deems  the  most  in 
nocent,  be  so  for  him  :  he  would  perish  at  the 
bare  sight  of  an  object,  which  a  worldling  would 
have  regarded  with  indifference :  a  single  free- 

o  o 

dom  of  discourse,  a  single  immodesty  of  carri 
age,  a  single  affectation  or  complaisance  of  man 
ner,  will  defile  him :  in  such  company  he  is  al 
ways  on  the  edge  of  the  precipice,  and  will 
rarely  quit  it,  without  falling  into  the  sinful 
abyss. 

You  rely,  perhaps,  on  the  horror  whjch  you 
think  you  feel,  of  gross  transgression  :  but  who 
has  told  you  that  this  is  not  presumption  ;  and 
are  you  ignorant  that  abhorrence  of  guilt,  when 
it  is  sincere,,  not  only  alienates  us  from  sin,  but 


410 


ON    THE    CONDUCT    OF 


from  whatever  might  conduct  us  to  it?  and  who 
has  informed  you,  that  it  is  not  a  snare  of  the 
tempter,  who  augments  our  confidence,  in  pro 
portion  as  the  danger  of  the  occasion  into  which 
he  has  seduced  us,  is  the  more  inevitable?   or 
do  you  imagine,  that  all  those  who  perish,  every 
day,  expected  to  have  fallen  !      The  devil  lias 
more   than  one  resource,   and  he  deceives  and 
draws  more  into  his  toils,  by  the  false  appear 
ances  of  innocence,  than  even  by  the  attractions 
of  crime.     Is  it  not  enough  to  fill  us  with  fear, 
that  we  carry  within  us,  what  is  more  than  suffi 
cient  to  cause   our  fall  ;   and   can   the  rashness 
that    seeks    danger,    become   for    us  a   security 
against   that   very  danger  itself?     Alas!    Saint 
Paul,  fortified  by  so  many  graces,  taught,  in  hea 
ven,   those  ineffable  secrets  which   neither  the 
eye  of  man  had  seen,  nor  his  ear  ever  heard  ; 
Saint  Paul,  so  full  of  the  love  of  Jesus  Christ, 
that  he  could  defy  all  creatures,  and  even  death 
itself,  to  separate  him  from  it,  incessantly  chas 
tising  his  body  and  reducing  it  into  subjection; 
living  no  longer  according  to  the  senses,  but  sole 
ly  according  to   the  life  of  Jesus  Christ,  cruci 
fied  to  the  world,  immolating  himself  for  his  bre 
thren,  running  the  career  of  his  Apostleship,  in 
hunger  and  thirst,    in    nakedness,  persecutions 


THE   CLERGY    IN    THE    WORLD.  411 

and  shipwreck,  Saint  Paul  amidst  so  many  pro 
digies  and  so  many  heroic  virtues,  feels  the 

O  J 

sting  of  the  flesh,  and  is  compelled  to  sink  down 
upon  his  knees,  to  humble  himself,  and  confess 
his  misery  and  his  nothing-ness  before  the  Lord, 
and  to  entreat  him  more  than  once,  to  destroy 
in  him  this  body  of  sin,  and  deliver  him  from 
temptation.  And  we,  my  brethren,  weak  and 
unmodified,  with  violent  inclinations  for  the 
world  and  for  pleasure,  with  virtues  moderate, 
languid,  and  mixed  up  with  many  imperfections, 
we  would  flatter  ourselves,  that  our  flesh  will 
be  always  submissive  and  docile,  and  that  we 
shall  never  experience  the  shame  of  its  com 
motion  and  revolt,  even  amidst  scenes  and  ob 
jects  the  most  calculated  to  inflame  it,  and  in 
to  which  we  run  without  precaution,  without 
the  command  of  God,  and  without  distrust  of 
ourselves?  What  illusion  !  what,  my  brethren! 
the  most  penitent  anchorets  were  afraid  of  pe 
rishing  in  the  depths  of  their  deserts,  and  the 
dangerous  images  alone,  of  their  past  weak 
nesses,  exercised  their  faith  and  innocence,  and 
stimulated  the  penitential  austerities  of  a  long 
succession  of  years ;  and  you,  whose  morals  have 
nothing  of  that  stern  severity  that  would  repel 
the  demon  of  voluptuousness,  would  fancy  your- 


ON    TIIE   CONDUCT   OF 

self  in  safety  amidst  those  perils,  the  very  recol 
lection  of  which,  had  nearly  overwhelmed  those 
holy  penitents?  What?  Job  himself,  covered 
with  sores,  become  a  carcass  of  stench  and  cor 
ruption,  and  feeling-  no  longer  the  emotions  of 
the  flesl^  save  in  the  violence  of  his  pains:  Job 
in  this  state  of  disease  and  affliction.,  calls  to 
mind  the  covenant  which  he  had  made  with  his 
eyes,1  that  they  should  not  even  think  on  dan 
gerous  objects  :  and  you,  with  flesh  delicately 
pampered,  and  of  which  you  know  the  weak 
ness  but  too  well ;  you,  at  an  age  when  its 
strength  and  empire  are  most  to  be  feared,  you 
would  allow  yourself  indiscreet  familiarities; 
you  would  suffer  your  eyes  to  rest,  every  day, 
on  objects  the  most  capable  of  deliling  you,  and 
you  would  continue  amidst  such  occasions,  with 
out  dread,  and  with  as  much  confidence  as 
though  you  were  already  like  to  the  angels,  or 
as  though  your  body  had  already  put  on  incor- 
ruption  and  immortality.  And  hence,  O  Lord, 
thy  church  is  every  day,  dishonoured  by  the 
scandalous  falls  of  her  ministers  !  thus  it  isA  that 
we  cause  thy  holy  name  to  be  blasphemed  among- 
the  nations  ;  that  we  betray  thy  service  and 
abandon  the  majesty  of  thy"  sanctuary  to  deri 
sion  and  insult,  and  are  ourselves  becomo  the 


THE   CLERGY  IN   THE   WORLD,  413 

opprobrium  and  the  scorn  of  thy  people.  We 
ought  thera  to  interdict  to  ourselves,  and  at  once 
break  off,  &11  intimacy  with  persons,  whose  so 
ciety  may  be  for  us,  a  subject  of  scandal  and 
of  sin. 

In  the  third  place,  we  must  avoid  those  per 
sons  to  whom  we  are  not  debtors  by  our  mi 
nistry.  Our  functions  attach  us  to  certain 
places,  to  certain  works,  to  a  certain  office;  but, 
oftentimes,  this  is  precisely  what  is  not  to  our 
taste.  We  seek,  beyond  the  limits  of  our  mis 
sion,  employments  foreign  to  our  duties  :  we 
neglect  what  God  demands  of  us,  for  duties  to 
which  he  had  not  destined  us,  and  thus  we  de 
range  the  order  of  his  designs  both  upon  our 
selves  and  upon  our  brethren.  Piety  is  useful 
unto  all  thing's,  but  we  render  it  unprofitable, 
when  we  do  not  make  that  use  of  it,  which  God 
prescribes  :  he  does  not  require  of  each  one  of 
us,  everv  sort  of  good  :  there  is  a  certain  mea 
sure  beyond  which  our  gift  does  not  go,  and 
solid  piety  consists  in  stopping  there,  without 
attempting  to  pass  those  bounds,  which  the  ve 
ry  spirit  of  God  has  marked  out  to  us.  We 
imagine  that  there  is  a  zeal  in  appearing  in 
every  place,  where  there  is  any  good  to  be  ef 
fected,  and  oftentimes  there  is  nothing  but  rest- 


ON    THE    CONDUCT    OF 

lessness  and  vanity:  our  stated  and  ordinary  func 
tions  are  disagreeable  and  burdensome  to  us, 
because  we  are  held  to  them  by  duty  alone ;  fo 
reign  and  voluntary  ones,  attract  and  awaken 
our  zeal,  because  they  gratify  our  taste,  and  mi 
nister  to  that  secret  complacency  by  which  we 
are  so  much  influenced  :  this  is  the  ancient  evil, 
which  pride  has  implanted  in  the  human  heart; 
whatever  tends  to  subjugate  it,  saddens  and  dis 
gusts  it ;  but  when  it  has  thrown  off  the  yoke, 
and  chosen  for  itself,  the  matter  of  its  zeal,  this 
liberty  of  choice  flatters  and  animates  it ;  and 
it  flies  in  the  very  course,  through  which  it 
would  have  dragged  itself,  slowly  along,  had  it 
been  traced  out  for  it,  by  the  tenor  of  its  func 
tions,  or  the  command  of  a  superior.  Paul  did 
not  undertake  to  evangelize  those  cities,  in  which 
Christ  had  been  already  announced,  le^t  he 
should  be  accused  of  stretching  his  Apostleship 
too  far,  or  of  raising  the  edifice  of  the  faith  up 
on  the  foundations  of  another:  Non  quasi  in  im- 
mensum  gloriatitcs  in  alicnis  laborious.*  His 
example  conveys  a  severe  reproof  to  indiscreet 
zeal  :  vanity  wishes  to  undertake  every  thing, 
but  charity  acts  not  rashly.  Even  works  of  mer- 

*2.  Cor.  c.  x.  v.  15. 


THE    CLERGY    IN    THE    WORLD.  415 

cy  have  their  dangers ;  in  the  performance  of 
them,  fervor  becomes  relaxed,  piety  dissipated, 
and  the  spirit  of  prayer  is  extinguished ;  and 
retreat,  recollection,  and  meditation  of  the  holy 
law,  must  supply  and  compensate  what  is  wasted 
in  those  offices  of  charity  ;  we  must  draw  from 
the  crucifix,  that  abundant  source,  graces  which 
lose  nothing  by  being  communicated  :  these  are 
indispensable  precautions  even  for  those  whom 
God  destines  to  those  holy  duties;  without  them, 
they  themselves  become  weak,  whilst  they  are 
endeavouring  to  strengthen  their  brethren  ;  they 
fall  away  insensibly,  their  fervor  cools,  and  by 
striving  to  diffuse  itself  too  widely,  becomes  ut 
terly  extinct.  Now,  if  these  evils  are  so  much 
to  be  feared,  even  when  we  act  in  the  order  of 
God,  even  when  we  are  sent  by  him,  judge 
what  must  be  our  danger,  when  instead  of  do 
ing  his  work,  we  are  merely  doing  our  own  : 
it  is  then  a  rule,  founded  on  piety  itself,  not  to 
proffer  our  ministry  indiscreetly,  to  persons  to 
whom  we  do  not  owe  it. 

In  fine,  the  last  precaution  is,  not  to  offer 
our  services,  even  to  those  to  whom  we  cannot 
render  them,  without  some  degree  of  scandal. 
The  reputation  of  a  Priest  is  something  so  dear 
io  the  church,  so  valuable  to  the  public,  so  es- 


41G 


OX    THE    CONDUCT    OF 


sential  to  the  success  of  his  functions,  so  con 
soling  for  himself,  that  lie  ought  to  preserve  it 
at  the  expense  of  every  thing  else.  Not  that 
we  ought  to  abandon  the  work  of  God,  through 
the  fear  of  evil  tongues,  nor  as  Christ  says,  suf 
fer  a  daughter  of  Abraham  to  die,  because  Pha 
risees,,  envious  of  every  good,  of  which  them 
selves  are  not  the  authors,  will  find  in  her  cure, 
an  unjust  subject  of  murmuring  and  scandal.* 
He  listens,  this  day,  without  being  moved,  to 
the  reproaches  of  those,  who  accuse  him  of  eat 
ing  and  drinking  with  sinners,  and  of  afford 
ing  them  a  ready  access  to  his  person.  There 
are  scandals  that  are  glorious  to  us,  and  mur 
murs  that  constitute  our  eulogy  :  but  there  are 
also  others  of  a  different  character,  which  have 
their  source  not  in  the  injustice  of  men,  but  in 
our  own  imprudence,  in  our  weakness,  and  in 
our  want  of  circumspection,  or  perhaps  of  vir 
tue  ;  and  it  is  here  that  caution  cannot  be  too 
vigilant.  The  assiduousness  of  our  services  is 

o 

never  useful,  when  it  is  excessive  :  I  will  sup 
pose  that  by  it,  you  forfeit  nothing  of  your  in 
nocence  ;  yet  all  is  lost,  from  the  moment  that 
you  inspire  the  slightest  suspicion  or  attract  the 

*Luke.  c.  xiii.  v.  11.  &c. 


THE    CLERGY   IN   THE   WORLD.  417 

censures  of  the  public :    I  will  admit  that  the 
superior  virtue  of  those  persons,  or  the  resources 
which  you  find  in  their  bounty,  for  the  neces 
sities  of  the  poor,   may  justify  your  assiduities, 
before  God ;    yet  God  condemns  them  from  the 
instant,  in  which  Christian  prudence  and  the  rules 
of  our   state,  cannot  justify  them  before  men ; 
all  that  is  lawful  is  not  expedient,  and  whatever 
is  not  expedient  in  a  public  minister,  ceases  to 
be  lawful  for  him.     It  is  not  sufficient  for  us, 
that  we   have   nothing-,   wherewith  to   reproach 
ourselves,  when  we  have  imprudently    exposed 
ourselves  to  the  reproaches  of  our  brethren  :  it 
is  not  enough,  that  the  pious  and  edifying  lives 
of  those   persons,  and   the  succours  which  we 
draw  from  their  bounty,  to  relieve  the  indigent 
and  promote  works  of  mercy,  leave  us  nothing 
to  scruple;  whatever  scandalizes  our  brethren, 
should  not  leave  us  a  moment,  in  peace.    When 
Christ,    says    Saint  Chrysostom,    commands  us 
to  pluck  out  the  eye  and  cut  off  the  hand,  that 
is  become  a  subject  of  scandal,  he  names  only 
the  noblest,  or  the  most  necessary  parts  of  the 
body,  as  if  he  liad  intended  to  say  to  us  :   how 
ever  splendid  may  be  the  virtue  of  this  person ; 
though  she  were  to  shine  in  the  world  as  the  eye 
shines  in  the  human  body,  you  must  pluck  her 


4!8 


ON   THE   CONDUCT   OF 


out;  though  she  were  lo  be  as  necessary,  as  is 
your  hand  for  your  actions,  you  must  cut  lier 
off.  God  does  not  require  duties  of  you,  at 
the  expense  of  the  honor  of  the  church,  which 
is  ever  inseparable  from  that  of  her  ministers: 
chanty  can  never  be  a  lawful  excuse  for  impru 
dence  :  the  edification  of  our  brethren  is  our 
first  rule,  and  the  most  unequivocal  fruit  of  true 
zeal.  God  is  not  glorified,  by  actions  even  the 
most  holy,  when  they  are  capable  of  casting  a 
just  suspicion  on  our  conduct:  the  good  which 
we  cannot  effect  without  some  sort  of  scandal, 
is  as  severely  interdicted  to  us,  as  evil  itself; 
and  whatever  may  be  the  plea  of  utility,  by 
which  you  may  endeavour  to  justify  your  indis 
cretion,  it  cannot  fail  of  being  fatal  either  to 
your  brethren,  by  the  rash  judgments  which 
they  will  form  of  it;  or  to  yourself,  whose  con 
duct  will,  perhaps,  verify  their  suspicions  but 
too  well,  in  the  sequel.  It  is  not  necessary  to 
accredit  this  mournful  prediction,  by  an  appeal 
to  facts ;  let  us  rather  suppose,  for  the  honor  of 
the  church,  that  they  have  never  happened,  and 
that  the  sole  desire  of  your  salvation  and,  the 
credit  of  your  ministry,  have  caused  me  to  ap 
prehend  evils,  which  I  have  not  yet  had  the  grief, 
of  being  compelled  to  deplore. 


THE   CLERGY    IN    THE   WORLD.  419 

Such  are  the  persons  whom  we  must  avoid ; 
and  in  what  has  been  already  said,  are  included 
the  rules  to  be  observed  towards  those,  whom 
we  are  permitted  to  see.  The  first  is,  to  see 
them  rarely  :  nothing1  so  much  sinks  our  charac 
ter  in  the  world,  as  an  anxiety  and  habit  of  ap 
pearing1  in  it.  I  have  already  said,  that  we  have 
our  weaknesses  and  our  imperfections,  and  that 
distance  alone  can  conceal  them  from  the  eyes 
of  men.  The  world,  as  you  are  aware,  esteems 
only  what  it  does  not  know :  whilst  it  sees  us 
but  afar,  it  regards  us  as  extraordinary  men,,  and 
as  Prophets  raised  up  by  God,  to  announce  to 
it,  his  will :  it  awards  to  us  the  homage  of  its 
admiration  and  respect,  because  it  sees  nothing 
in  us,  on  which  it  could  fasten  its  censures  :  but 
if  you  approach  it  often,  the  charm  ceases,  and 
your  presence  will  quickly  dissipate  those  fa 
vourable  errors,  to  which,  distance  had  given 
rise.  How  difficult  is  it  to  show  ourselves  of 
ten,  and  not  appear  what  we  really  are !  We 
always  suffer  something  to  be  seen  in  our  mo 
rals,  that  contradicts  the  holiness  and  severity 
of  the  doctrines  which  we  announce:  certain 
traits  of  the  man  discover  themselves,  and  im 
pede  the  progress  of  God's  work ;  and  the 
world,  by  a  malignity  natural  to  it,  in  our  re- 


420 


ON    THE    CONDUCT    OF 


gard,  whilst  it  qualifies  its  own  shameful  trans 
gressions  with  the  simple  name  of  weakness, 
fancies  that  it  discovers  guilt,  in  our  most  inno 
cent  foibles,  and  stigmatizes  even  our  indiffe 
rent  actions,  with  the  odious  epithet  of  crime : 
for  us  alone,  it  is  a  stern,  cruel  and  inexorable 
judge.  It  resembles  the  wicked  servant  men 
tioned  in  the  gospel;*  whilst  it  claims  indul 
gence  for  its  own  most  scandalous  and  crying 
prevarications,  it  exercises  an  excessive  and  bar 
barous  rigor  towards  us,  for  the  slightest  debts. 

The  second  rule  is,  to  sustain  in  every  place 
and  on  every  occasion,  the  serious  character  of 
our  ministry.  The  faithful  must  learn  from  us, 
how  to  converse  piously,  and  in  a  manner  wor 
thy  of  God.  The  lips  of  the  Priest  are  the  de 
positories  of  doctrine  and  truth,  and  therefore 
must  not  be  employed,  in  empty  trifles  and  pro 
fane  pleasantries.  Saint  Paul  requires  that  they 
should  be  banished  even  from  the  conversation 
.of  the  simple  faithful :  what  prudence,  what 
circumspection,  what  wisdom  ought  he  not  to  ex- 
jict  of  us !  what  holy  and  irreprehensible  words ! 
what  plenitude  of  the  spirit  of  God!  We  should 
not  be  one  sort  of  men  at  the  altar  and  in  the 
discharge  of  our  functions,  and  another,  in  fa- 

*Mat.  c.  18.  v.  24.  &c. 


THE   CLERGY    IN   THE   WORLD.  421 

miliar  intercourse,  and  the  ordinary  conduct  of 
life,  The  Pontiff  of  the  law  always  bore  the 
ornaments  of  his  high  office,  to  remind  him,,  as 
it  would  appear,  that  his  priesthood  accompani 
ed  him  in  every  place  ;  that  all  his  steps  were 
actions  of  ceremony  ;  that  the  gravity  of  his 
deportment  should  be  in  accordance  with  that 
of  his  vesture ;  and  that  as  every  thing  was  reli 
gious  about  his  person,  so  every  thing-  should 
be  holy,  in  his  conduct  :  thus  it  would  appear 
that  nothing  but  prayer,  or  sacrifice,  or  con 
verse  of  edification,  or  works  of  mercy,  is  occu 
pation  serious  enough  for  a  Priest.  So  you  are 
aware,  that  the  sacred  canons  forbid  us,  those 
games  and  public  amusements,  which  may  be 
innocently  enjoyed  by  the  body  of  the  faithful. 
The  eyes  of  the  people,  accustomed  to  behold 
us  prostrate,  recollected,  humbled  like  the  an 
gels  of  heaven  before  the  throne  of  the  Ancient 
of  days,  are  wounded  at  seeing  us  elsev/here, 
with  a  different  countenance,  and  with  manners 
and  habits  like  the  rest  of  men  :  when,  on  quit 
ting  those  vain  entertainments,  we  ascend  to 
the  altar,  and  put  on  the  recollection  which  the 
tremendous  mysteries  demand,  the  faithful,  wit 
nesses,  but  a  moment  before,  of  our  dissipations, 
regard  us  rather  as  actors  on  a  stage,  who 
counterfeit  solemn  mysteries,  than  as  ministers 


422  ON   THE  CONDUCT    OF 

of  the  living  God,  about  to  offer  to  him,  gifts 
and  sacrifices,  and  the  vows  and  prayers  of  his 
people.  In  a  word,  our  ministry  calls  us,  in 
deed,  among  men,  but  it  is,  to  be  the  salt  of  the 
earth,  the  light  of  those  who  are  walking  in 
darkness,  the  public  fountains  of  holiness,  the 
sweet  odor  of  Jesus  Christ. 

Let  us,  my  brethren,  in  conclusion,  briefly 
direct  our  attention  to  the  substance  of  all  that 
has  been  said,  and  to  the  fruit  to  be  gathered 
from  this  discourse.  It  is  necessary,  in  the  first 
place,  that  our  communications  with  the  world 
tend  to  inspire  the  faithful,  with  a  high  esteem 
for  virtue;  that  our  wisdom,  our  uprightness, 
and  our  circumspection,  be  calculated  to  give 
them  an  idea  of  piety,  worthy  of  religion,  and  to 
dissipate  that  prejudice,  so  ridiculous,  yet  so 
common  amongst  worldlings,  that  piety  is  the 
portion  of  weak  minds.  Jn  the  second  place, 
it  is  necessary,  that  our  intercourse  with  men, 
fill  them  with  a  love  and  desire  of  virtue ;  that 
the  modest  and  holy  joy  visible  in  our  counte 
nance,  the  sweet  serenity  that  ever  attends  the 
virtuous  and  peaceful  heart,  make  them  acknow 
ledge  in  secret,  that  the  friends  alone  of  God, 
are  happy  on  earth,  and  at  the  same  time,  dis 
abuse  them  of  the  gross  and  dangerous  error, 


THE  CLERGY  IN  THE  WORLD.  423 

that  at  a  distance  from  pleasures,,  there  can  be  no 
content,  and  that  innocence  and  fidelity  to  God 
are  of  themselves,  incapable  of  affording  true 
enjoyment  or  permanent  consolation. 

The  fruits  which  we,  ourselves,  my  brethren, 
should  gather  from  this  instruction,  are,  first, 
a  sovereign  contempt  of  the  world,  of  its  plea 
sures  and  its  cares :  it  is  esteemed  only  when 
seen  from  afar ;  but  enter  into  the  detail,  and 
examine  the  texture,  of  its  life,  its  listlessness, 
its  chagrin,  its  troubles,  its  perfidies,  its  ca 
prices,  you  will  be  soon  sensible  of  its  empti 
ness  and  wretchedness ;  and  you  will  pity  those 
who  are  compelled,  by  the  circumstances  of  their 
birth,  or  the  engagements  of  their  profession, 
to  attach  themselves  to  the  service  of  so  cruel, 
so  unworthy,  and  so  fickle  a  master.  Secondly, 
an  infinite  esteem  of  our  own  state,  which  re 
moves  us  from  a  place,  where  all  is  folly  and 
affliction  of  spirit;  where  guilt  itself  must  be 
purchased  by  sorrows  and  pain,  and  where  the 
conduct  tlrat  blasts  our  prospects  for  hereafter, 
renders  us  miserable  even  here  below  :  a  state,  I 
say,  which  removes  us  from  those  scenes  of  strife 
and  vexation,  to  consecrate  us  to  the  sacred  mi 
nistry,  to  hide  us  in  the  depths  of  the  sanctuary, 
and  make  of  the  house  of  the  Lord,  the  place 


424  ON   THE    CONDUCT    OF,   &C. 

of  our  security  and  peace;  a  state  which  pro 
vides  for  us,  an  asylum  of  delight  and  consola 
tion  ;  a  dwelling  of  glory  and  holiness,  to  pror 
tect  us  from  the  perils  and  storms  of  the  world, 
and  leave  us  at  leisure,  to  pour  forth  our  gra 
titude  to  our  Almighty  deliverer,  whilst  we  con 
template  the  sad  fate,  and  weep  over  the  mourn 
ful  shipwreck,  of  our  brethren.— Amen. 


A  DISCOURSE 


ON 


THE  ZEAL  OF  THE  CLERGY  FOR  THE 
SALVATION  OF  SOULS. 


Quis  infirmatur  et  ego  non  infirmor?   quis  scanda- 
lizatur  et  ego  non  uror  ? 

IVJto  is  weak,  and  I  am  not  weak  ?  who  is  scanda- 
j  and  I  do  not  burn  ? 

2.  CORINTHIANS,  chap.  xi.  ver.  29. 


SUCH,  my  brethren,,  is  the  model  of  that  zeal, 
which  a  minister  of  Jesus  Christ,  should  feel  for 
the  salvation  of  the  souls  entrusted  to  him ;  and 
such  are  the  sentiments  with  which  his  pater 
nal  bosom  ought  to  be  unceasingly  agitated.  A 
pastor  who  beholds,  unmoved,  the  disorders  of 
his  people  ;  who  labors  with  indifference,  and 
rather  from  motives  of  decency,  than  from  a  true 
zeal,  to  draw  them  from  the  evil  of  their  ways; 


426       ON  THE  ZEAL  OF  THE  CLERGY 

who  does  no  more  than  barely  refuse  to  applaud 
ihe  vices  of  which  he  is  the  witness ;  in  a  word, 
who  feels  »ot  the  loss  of  the  souls  committed  to 
his  care,  and  who  cannot  say,  with  the  Apostle, 
that  the  fall  of  the  v\eak  overwhelms  him  with 
affliction,  or  that  the  scandals  by  which  they  pe 
rish,  kindle  in  his  breast,  a  (ire  of  devouring  zeal 
and  of  holy  iiKlignation;  a  pastor  of  this  character 
is  dead  in  faith,  and  has  lost,  or  even  perhaps,  has 
never  received,  the  grace  of  his  vocation.  Zeal 
then  for  the  salvation  of  souls,  is  the  first  duty 
of  the  pastor:  it  is  the  duty  of  every  day,  and 
of  every  hour;  it  should  animate  all  his  func 
tions,  support  him  under  the  most  painful  toils, 
regulate  the  exercise  of  his  authority,  be  the 
measure  of  his  labors  and  of  his  cares,  the  fixed 
and  only  object  of  all  his  projects ;  and,  in  a 
word,  the  soul  and  consolation  of  his  whole 
ministry. 

It  is  in  vain  that  his  morals  are,  in  other  re 
spects,  without  reproach  ;  for  it  is  not  enough  for 
us,  that  we  lead  a  life  wise  and  orderly,  in  the 
eyes  of  men.  If,  with  the  exterior  of  regularity, 
we  are  not  penetrated  with  a  lively  grief,  on  be 
holding  the  loss  of  the  souls  entrusted  to  us  ; 
if,  to  draw  sinners  from  the  evil  of  their  ways, 
\ve  do  not  put  on  the  zeal  of  charity  and  of 


THE   SALVATION    OF  SOULS.  42? 

faith,  and  arm  ourselves  with  the  sword  of  the 
word  ;  if  we  neither  exhort  nor  conjure ;  if  we 
reprehend  not,  in  season,  and  out  of  season  ;  if, 
content  with  our  own  justice,  wre  think  it  suffi 
cient  for  our  salvation,  to  disapprove  by  our 
example,  or  faintly  to  condemn,  the  vices  of 
the  people,  we  are  not  pastors  but  idols  ;*  our 
pretended  virtue,  indolent,  motionless,  and  le 
thargic,  is  a  crime  and  an  abomination  before 

o     * 

the  Lord:  we  are  no  longer  charged  with  the 
interests  of  God  upon  earth,  we  live  in  it,  only 
for  ourselves  :  we  are  no  longer  the  envoys  of 
Jesus  Christ,  to  make  up  the  tilings  that  are 
still  wanting  in  his  passion, f  by  rendering  the 
shedding  of  his  blood,  and  his  redemption,  pro 
fitable  to  our  people  ;  we  are  idle  and  indifferent 
spectators  of  his  opprobrium,  and  by  our  silence 
and  our  insensibility,  we  consent  to  the  crime 
of  those,  who  crucify  him.  No,  my  brethren, 
let  us  disabuse  ourselves  ;  regularity  of  morals, 
so  far  from  excusing  the  indolence  of  the  pas 
tor,  renders  it  the  more  criminal,  because  his 
inactivity  deprives  his  flock  of  the  advantages  of 
a  zeal,  which  his  conduct  would  have  rendered 


Pastor  et  idolum,  derelinquens  gregem  : — 

Zach.  c.  xi.  v.  17. 
fColoss.  c.  i.  v.  24. 


ON    THE    ZEAL   OF   THE    CLERGY 

the  more  respectable  and  beneficial.  But,  be 
sides,  I  have  said  before,  and  I  again  repeat, 
that  whatever  be  the  apparent  regularity  of  his 
life,  he  has  but  the  semblance,  without  the  reali 
ty  °f  P^ty  :  he  seems  to  live,  but  in  the  sight 
of  heaven  he  is  dead;  men,  perhaps,  piaise,  but 
God  curses,  and  rejects,  him  :  his  regularity  lulls 
him  to  repose,  but  a  terrible  sound  and  the 
cries  of  the  souls,  whom  he  leaves  to  perish, 
will,  one  day,  rouse  him  from  his  lethargy :  he 
is  tranquil,  because,  in  the  circle  of  his  acquain 
tance,  he  can  compare  himself  with  many  pas 
tors,  whose  lives  are  less  regular  than  his.  own ; 
but  he  will  >et  see,  that  his  justice  was  but 
the  justice  of  the  Pharisee  ;  that  charity  alone 
is  the  foundation  of  true  virtue  ;  and  that  his 
eternal  lot  will  be  the  portion  of  the  hypocrite 
and  of  the  unprofitable  .servant. 

What,  my  brethren,  a  minister  of  Jesus  Christ, 
sent  to  do  his  work  upon  earth ;  to  enlarge  his 
kingdom,  to  advance  the  building  of  the  ever 
lasting  city,  and  the  consummation  of  the  Saints, 
shall  see  the  reign  of  satan  prevail  over  the 
reign  of  Jesus  Christ,  in  the  portion  of  the 
flock  committed  to  his  care,  and  yet  his  faith, 
and  his  charity,  and  his  pretended  piety,  shall 
allow  him  to  remain  tranquil  and  unconcerned? 


FOR  THE  SALVATION  OF  SOULS.       429 

and  content  that  his  conscience  makes  him  no 
personal  reproach,,  he  shall  feel  no  remorse  on 
the  subject  of  the  disorders  which  he  suffers  in 
those  of  whom  he  has  change  ?  and  shall  see 

o 

Jesus  Christ,  whose  place  he  holds,  outraged, 
and  yet  persuade  himself  that  he  loves  him, 
and  is  a  minister  according  to  his  own  heart, 
though  he,  every  day,  unmoved,  beholds  him 
crucified  anew  by  the  very  people  for  whom  he 
is  to  answer?  But  although  these  scandals  were 
to  take  place  elsewhere  than  amongst  his  peo 
ple,  if  he  were  to  witness  them,  and  had  yet 
remaining  a  single  spark  of  faith,  or  of  the  love 
of  God,  he  ought  at  least  to  weep  over  them 
in  secret;  to  address  himself  to  the  Lord  in 
the  bitterness  of  his  heart,  to  obtain  for  these 
wretches  the  spirit  of  compunction  and  of  pe 
nance:  what  do  I  say?  he  ought  to  use  the 
authority  with  which  the  dignity  of  the  priest 
hood  always  invests  him,  to  strive  to  inspire 
sentiments  more  worthy  of  religion  into  those 
perverse  and  corrupt  men ;  and  he  would  prove 
himself  a  coward,  a  prevaricator,  a  minister 
who  betrays  his  trust,  if  a  criminal  insensibility, 
or  the  prudence  of  the  fle.sh,  were  to  close  his 
mouth,  upon  such  an  occasion :  and  shall  he 
believe  himself  innocent,  and  remain  tranquil 


430      ON  THE  ZEAL  OF  THE  CLERGV 

in  his  pretended  regularity,  if  witnessing*  the 
same  scandals  in  the  midst  of  his  own  people, 
he  appear  equally  insensible?  Can  a  father 
behold,  without  concern,  his  children  perishing 
before  his  eyes?  does  the  shepherd  see  his  flock 
falling  down  the  precipice,  without  striving  to 
save,  and,  at  least,  making  them  hear  his  voice? 
Though  but  one  were  to  stray,  he  ought  to  go 
in  quest  of  it,  far  and  wide,  and  thro'  moun 
tains  and  vallies,  thro'  toil  and  fatigue,  bear  it 
back  on  his  shoulders  to  the  fold.  No,  my  bre 
thren,  such  a  one  is  not  a  father  but  a  stranger ; 
not  a  shepherd  but  a  hireling  ;  not  a  minister 
of  Jesus  Christ,  but  a  usurper  of  that  august 
title,  and  notwithstanding  his  vaunted  regula 
rity  and  his  false  justice,  he  is  a  vessel  of  ig 
nominy  and  of  reprobation,  placed  in  the  tem 
ple  of  the  Lord. 

But  the  people  of  the  country  are  so  rude, 
so  ferocious,  so  un tractable,  that  a  pastor  who 
would  undertake  to  reform  the  abuses  that 
abound  amongst  them,  would  expose  himself  to 
a  variety  of  difficulties  and  vexations.  What, 
my  brethren  ?  can  the  extremeness  of  the  evil 
become  the  apology,  or  the  palliation,  of  our 
indifference?  Your  people  are  rude  and  un- 
tiactable  ?  but  it  is  for  this  very  reason,  that 


FOR  THE  SALVATION   OF  SOtJlS.  431 

you  should  redouble  your  care,  your  charity, 
and  your  labor,  to  soften  and  humanize  their 
hearts :  zeal  would  be  uncalled  for,  if  you  had 
none  but  just  and  docile  souls  to  conduct :  it 
is  because  you  see  your  people  rebels  to  the 
truth,  that  you  ought  to  permit,  yourself  to  en 
joy  neither  repose  nor  consolation,  so  long-  as 
they  shall  continue  in  these  criminal  disposi 
tions.  What!  because  they  have  greater  need 
of  your  pastoral  solicitude,  you  would  suppose 
yourself  bound  to  nothing  in  their  regard  ?  what 
should  enkindle  your  zeal,  cools  and  extin 
guishes  it,  and  you  become  an  idle  and  unpro 
fitable  labourer,  because  of  the  abundance  of 
the  harvest?  Would  the  gospel  have  spread 
throughout  the  universe,  and  the  cross  have 
triumphed  over  the  Cesars  and  the  nations,  if 
the  Apostolic  men  who  have  preceded  us,  had 
paid  any  regard  to  the  dispositions  and  the  ob 
stacles,  which  our  fathers  and  the  whole  pagan 
world,  opposed  to  the  progress  of  the  divine 
word?  Where  should  we  have  now  been,  if  dif 
ficulties  unsurmountable  to  human  prudence, 
had  cooled  their  zeal  and  suspended  their  la 
bors,  and  if  in  the  persuasion  of  finding  us,  as 
we  really  were,  stubborn  and  ferocious,  they 
bad  unfortunately  left  us  in  the  darkness  of 


432       ON  THE  ZEAL  OF  THE  CLERGY 

our  original  ignorance  ?  You  fear  difficulties  : 
but  what  has  a  pastor  to  fear  who  fulfils  his 
ministry,  with  edification?  what?  is  it  contempt, 
calumnies,  and  contradictions  ?  but  this  is  his 
glory,  and  ought  to  be  the  most  consoling  re 
ward  of  his  labor  and  zeal.  What?  is  it  abuse, 
outrage,  and  suffering  ?  they  would  be  the  most 
honourable  seal  of  your  Apostleship.  But  thanks 
to  the  influence  of  truth,  and  to  the  milder  spi 
rit  of  latter  years,  you  have  not,  like  your  pre 
decessors,  to  resist  unto  blood :  the  sway  and 
the  vengeance  of  the  tyrant  are  past  away,  and 
zeal  may  now  form  holy  pastors,  but  it  no  long 
er  leads  the  martyr  to  the  scaffold. 

Besides,  my  brethren,  let  us  take  a  fair  view 
of  the  case  :  these  poor  people  whom  you  re 
present  as  so  vicious  and  so  stubborn,  would 
not  continue  long  so,  under  the  care  of  a  cha 
ritable  and  edifying  pastor.  They  respect  the 
virtue  of  a  man  of  God,  and  in  spite  of  their 
vices,  there  is  to  be  found  in  these  rough  and 
ignorant  souls,  more  of  the  fear  of  God,  and  a 
greater  fund  of  religion,  than  in  the  polished 
and  the  powerful :  their  hearts  and  minds  are 
not  vitiated  by  those  maxims  of  irreligion  and 
immorality  which  infect  the  inhabitants  of  cities: 
they  still  fear  and  respect  the  God,  whom  they 


FOR   THE    SALVATION    OF   SOULS.  433 

offend ;  and  the  seeds  of  truth  find  in  them,  a 
thousand  times  a  better  soil,,  than  in  the  wealthy 
and  the  great  of  the  age.  Far,  then,  from  seek 
ing-  an  excuse  for  your  indifference  in  the  dis 
orders  and  the  pretended  insensibility  of  such  a 
flock,  you  should  esteem  yourself  happy,  in  hav 
ing  to  preach  the  gospel  only  to  the  little  and 
the  poor ;  for  they  have  a  better  title  than  the 
rich,  to  the  kingdom  of  heaven  •  to  them  the 
promises  seem  to  have  been  made;  to  them,  in 
particular,  Christ  appears  to  have  been  sent : 
Evangelizare pauperibus  misit  me;*  and  in  them 
the  divine  word  finds  far  less  of  the  opposi 
tion  of  flesh  and  blood,  than  in  the  rich  and  the 
great,  in  those  souls,  sunk  in  voluptuousness  and 
effeminacy. 

And  do  not  tell  me,  my  brethren,  that,  thef 
morals  of  the  people,  have  greatly  changed ; 
that  their  ancient  simplicity  has  degenerated 
into  licentiousness  without  bounds ;  that  the  cor 
ruption  of  cities  has  so  entirely  overflowed  the 
country,  that  you  no  longer  know  how,  or 
where,  to  begin  reform,  or  in  what  manner  to 
introduce  the  love  of  order  and  of  the  duties 
of  religion  ;  that  in  former  times,  two  or  three 

*  Luke.  c.  iv.  v.  18.  4' 


434      ON  THE  ZEAL  OF  THE  CLERGY 

scandalous  livers  were  scarcely  to  be  found,  in  a 
parish;  that  then  the  zeal  of  the  Apostle,  might 
be  of  use  against  a  single  incestuous  sinner, 
and  that  a  pastor  might  then  expect  some  suc 
cess  from  his  labors;  but  that  at  the  present 
day,  when  almost  all  flesh  hath  corrupted  its 
way,  and  when  disorder  in  the  most  secluded 
parts  of  the  country,  has  gained  every  age  and 
condition,  a  pastor  must  feel  dejected,  and  can 
not  have  courage  to  attempt  either  improvement 
or  reformation.  But  were  this  the  truth,  my 
brethren,  I  might,  at  once,  ask  you,  whence  then 
proceeds  so  great  a  misfortune?  whence  pro 
ceed  the  vices  that  have  inundated  your  peo 
ple  ?  why  is  the  country  no  longer,  as  formerly, 
the  abode  of  innocence  and  simplicity  ?  Alas ! 
my  brethren,  may  not  these  evils  be  traced  to 
ourselves?  are  they  not  to  be  ascribed  to  the  in 
difference,  the  dissipation,  and  the  inefficiency 
of  pastors  ?  You  complain  that  disorder  is  ge 
neral  in  your  parishes :  but  examine  yourselves 
at  the  foot  of  the  cross,  and  see  whether  this 
will  not  be  the  most  overwhelming  charge, 
which  Jesus  Christ  will,  one  day,  utter  against 
you?  for  where  are  the  people  without  religion, 
without  the  fear  of  God,  without  any  bounds  in 
crime,  but  in  parishes  governed  by  bad  Priests  ? 


FOR   THE   SALVATION   OF   SOULS.  435 

But  thanks  to  the  mercies  of  the  Lord,  we  are 
far  from  having  the  grief  of  believing,  that  such 
a  misfortune  is  general  within  this  diocess.  No., 
my  brethren,  we  ourselves  have  seen,  and  seen 
with  consolation,  that  vice,  so  far  from  being 
universal  in  parishes  governed  by  holy  pastors, 
is,  on  the  contrary,  very  rare  :  we  have  seen  that 
piety  is  in  repute,  and  that  many  simple  souls 
console  their  pastor  by  an  innocent  life  ;  that 
the  duties  of  religion  are  practised  with  assi 
duity  ;  the  sacraments  frequented  ;  the  word  of 
God  heard  with  edification;  and  that  if  there  be 
a  scandalous  sinner  to  be  found,  he  stands  apart 
from  the  flock,  that  he  is  looked  upon  with  a 
kind  of  horror,  and  that  his  example,  so  far 
from  seducing  others,  inspires  them  with  a  still 
greater  abhorrence  of  vice.  This  is  what  we 
have  seen,  and  what  the  presence  of  the  many 
excellent  pastors  who  now  hear  me,  brings  back 
to  my  mind,  with  new  and  additional  conso 
lation. 

Besides,  my  brethren,  were  it  true,  that  you 
had  the  misfortune  of  being  set  over  a  parish, 
in  which,  disorder  had  become  general  and  pub 
lic  ;  ah!  it  is  for  this  very  reason,  that  you 
ought  to  believe,  that  God  had  selected  and  sent 
you,  to  these  poor  creatures,  only  to  correct  and 


436      ON  THE  ZEAL  OF  THE  CLEKGY 

convert  them.  For  why  are  \ve  the  salt  of  the 
earth,  and  the  light  of  the  world,  unless  it  be 
to  restore  to  soundness,  the  putrifying  and  the 
infected,  and  give  light  to  those,  who  are  abi 
ding  in  darkness,  and  in  the  shadow  of  death  I 
Can  the  multitude  of  sinners,  because  it  mul 
tiplies  our  duties,  authorize  us  to  contemn  and 
neglect  them  altogether?  and  can  a  cowardly 
and  human  fear,  lest  the  remedies  for  the  gene 
ral  distemper  should  prove  unsuccessful,  reme 
dies  which  God  himself  puts  into  our  hands  ; 
can  such  a  fear,  be  pleaded  before  him,  in  ex 
cuse  for  the  omission  of  the  increased  toils  and 
more  anxious  exertions,  which,  in  such  circum 
stances,  he  requires  from  our  ministry  ?  Did 
Moses  refuse  his  zeal  and  his  services  to  the 
Jews,  when  that  entire  people,  covered  with  the 
guilt  of  idolatry,  lay  prostrate  before  the  golden 
calf?  Did  the  holy  Priest,  Esdras,  suppose 
that  his  care  and  his  instructions  would  be  fruit 
less,  when  he  found  his  whole  nation,  and  even 
the  Levites  themselves,  defiled  by  intermarriage 
with  the  gentiles ;  or  did  he  sutler  himself  to 
be  disgusted  and  discouraged,  or  did  he  deem 
it  vain  to  seek  remedies  for  a  disorder,  so  uni 
versal?  No,  he  ceased  not  to  announce  the  sa 
cred  ordinances  of  the  law.,  till  the  repentance 


FOR   THE   SALVATION    OF   SOULS.  43? 

and  the  tears  of  all  Jerusalem,  had  testified  the 
happy  success  of  his  labors  and  his  zeal.  The 
whole  earth  was  filled  with  corruption,  and  re 
ligion  itself  had  become  a  public  prostitution, 
when  the  first  ministers  of  the  gospel  received 
their  commission ;  did  they  deliberate  whether 
or  not,  they  should  go  forth  to  preach  Christ, 
and  attack  those  passions  and  vices,  which  long 
usage  had  sanctioned,  and  which  an  impious 
worship  had  consecrated,  among  every  people? 
It  was  from  this  general  corruption,  that  they 
recognised  the  divinity  and  the  necessity  of  their 
mission  :  they  looked  upon  themselves,  as  in 
struments  and  ministers  of  salvation,  whom  the 
mercy  of  God,  and  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ, 
sent  forth  to  correct  the  errors,  to  cleanse  the 
defilements,  and  heal  the  diseases,  qf  all  the 
earth.  Have  not  we  succeeded  to  their  mission 
and  their  ministry,  and  can  we  believe  that  God 
wishes  the  destruction  of  those  to  whom  he 
sends  us?  that  in  charging  us  with  the  same 
ministry,  as  the  first  disciples,  his  mercy  did  not 
design  us  to  be  to  them,  instruments  and  mi 
nisters  of  salvation  ?  and  that  he  is  content  that 
we  should  remain  in  a  barbarous  inactivity,  till 
lie  shall  have  consummated  their  reprobation, 
find  accomplished  his  judgments  of  wrath  and 


438      ON  THE  ZEAL  OF  THE  CLERGY 

vengeance  upon  them  ?  We  would  not  then  be 
sent  to  them  as  pastors  and  as  father?,  but,  as 
the  mournful  officers  of  public  justice,  to  wit 
ness  and  approve  the  punishment  of  criminals 
condemned  to  die;  and  our  ministry,  far  from 
being  a  ministry  of  life  and  salvation,  would  be 
turned  into  a  frightful  ministry  of  condemnation 
and  death. 

But  moreover,  my  brethren,  although  out  of 
the  multitude  of  sinners  of  which  we  complain, 
it  should  be  our  lot  to  bring  back  to  Jesus 
Christ,  but  a  single  soul,  would  not  so  valuable 
a  prize  be  a  sufficient  reward  for  the  toils  and 
the  anxieties  of  an  entire  life?  and  would  we 
not  be  abundantly  paid,  in  being,  one  day, 
able  to  present  it  to  Jesus  Christ,  and  in  receiv 
ing  its  grateful  acknowledgments  through  all 
eternity,  in  the  assembly  of  the  angels  and  the 
elect?  Ah!  why  should  we  despair  of  the  pow 
er  of  grace,  over  the  sinful  and  the  hardened? 
it  is  upon  them  that  God  loves  to  display  the 
strength  of  his  arm,  and  the  riches  of  his  un 
bounded  mercy.  We  would  have  reason  to  be 
discouraged,  at  the  sight  of  the  disorders  of  our 
people,  if  we  were  to  rely  on  ourselves  alone:  but 
by  the  grace  of  our  mission,  it  is  no  longer  we, 
it  is  Jesus  Christ  that  works  in  us  and  by  us : 


FOR   THE   SALVATION    OF   SOULS.  439 

Uie  weakest  instruments  are  frequently  those, 
by  which  he  is  pleased  to  produce  the  greatest 
things :  fulfil  your  ministry ;  it  is  all  that  he 
requires  of  you;  it  is  for  him  to  do  the  rest. 

And  in  effect,  my  brethren,  we  often  speak  of 
the  vices  and  the  disorders  of  our  people,  as  if 
all  were  lost,  as  if  they  were  beyond  the  reach  of 
conversion,  and  that  there  was,  no  long%er,  any 
hope  of  their  salvation.  But,  my  brethren,  who 
has  taught  us  to  set  bounds  to  the  infinite  mercies 
of  the  Lord?  to  him  alone  belongs  judgment, 
as  well  as  vengeance  ;  and  why  should  we  con 
demn  as  irreclaimable  those,  whom  he  can,  in 
an  instant,  convert?  and  yet,  we  ourselves  hope 
that  the  Lord  will,  one  day,  show  us  mercy  ;  that 
he  will  touch  our  hearts  ;  that  he  will  change  our 
sloth  into  zeal,  our  worldly  life  into  a  priestly 
life  of  prayer,  of  mortification  and  retreat ;  and 
this  we  hope,  in  spite  of  repeated  infidelities, 
rendered  still  more  criminal  by  our  superior 
knowledge,  our  remorses,  and  the  sacred  duties 
of  our  state.  We  hope,  that  in  spite  of  the 
abuses  which  we  have  so  often  made  of  his 
graces,  and  of  our  functions,  God  will  not  de 
liver  us  over  to  impenitence  and  hardness  of 
heart,  although  final  impenitence  is  the  most 
ordinary  chastisement  which  he  exercises  upon 


440      ON  THE  REAL  OF  THE  CLERGY 

unfaithful  Priests ;  and  we  would  despair  of  the 
salvation,  and  regard  as  hopeless  the  conversion 
of  a  wretched  people,  whom  ignorance,  and  the 
evils  of  a  bad  education,  rather  than  real  ma 
lice  or  irreligion,  cause,  every  day,  to  sink 
more  deeply  into  crime?  And  we  would  sup 
pose  that  the  bowels  of  the  Almighty,  ever  mer 
ciful,  are  of  iron,  like  our  own,  towards  those 
rude  but  simple  men,  whose  lives  are  made  up 
of  toil,  of  poverty  and  of  wretchedness,  and 
that  after  having  rendered  them  miserable  in 
this  life,  he  destines  them  to  eternal  misery,  in 
the  life  to  come  ?  Ah !  it  is  towards  them  in 
particular,  that  he  relaxes  even  the  ordinary 
rigor  of  his  justice  ;  and  touched  with  the  hard 
ships  of  their  laborious  life,  and  the  destitution 
of  their  forlorn  condition,  it  is  for  them  that  he 
reserves  all  his  indulgence  :  Pared  pauperi  et 
inopi,  ct  animas  paupcrum  salvas  faciet*  The 
rich  he  curses  and  rejects,  and  by  the  obsta 
cles,  which  their  state  places  in  their  path  of 
life,  he  seems  to  leave  them  no  hope  of  salva 
tion  :  we,  on  the  contrary,  are  forbearing  and 
indulgent  towards  the  rich  and  the  powerful; 
we  overlook  their  weaknesses,  their  luxury., 

*  Psalm  71.  v.  13. 


FOR  THE  SALVATION  OF  SOULS.      441 

their  passions;  notwithstanding  their  vices,  we 
allow  them  to  hope  every  thing,  from  the  mer 
cies  of  the  Lord.  In  the  tribunal  and  else 
where,  our  language  towards  them,  is  full  of 
mildness  and  charity  :  however  incorrigible  they 
may  be,  we  esteem  ourselves  honoured,  in  dis 
charging:  towards  them,  the  functions  of  our  mi- 

O        O  J 

nistry,  nor  is  the  inutility  of  those  functions,  in 
their  regard^  ever  made  a  pretext  for  rejecting 
their  application  and  discontinuing  our  office: 
But  for  the  poor  and  the  weak,  we  reserve  all 
our  harshness  ;  it  is  towards  them  alone,  that 
we  sternly  exercise  all  the  severity  of  the  gos 
pel  ;  in  them  alone,  we  overlook  nothing ;  it  is 
in  their  regard,  that  every  thing  disgusts  us, 
and  that  we  imagine  our  labors  useless,  un 
less  they  are  attended  with  an  immediate  ef 
fect. 

In  fine,  you  will,  perhaps,  say,  that  these  arc 
not  the  motives  that  restrain  you,  and  that  have 
hitherto  prevented  you,  from  using  the  autho 
rity  of  your  ministry,  in  endeavours  to  destroy 
the  public  and  too  common  abuses,  which  you 
know  to  prevail  among  your  people.  But  you 
fear  that  you  will  not  be  supported,  that  you 
will  pass  for  imprudent,  and  that  your  zeal  will 
have  no  other  effect,  than  to  excite  the  hatred 


<*!f    THE    ZEAL   OF   THE    CLERGY 

of  your  parishioners,  and  ensure  the  reproach  of 
your  superiors. 

I  agree,  my  brethren,  that  there  is  a  zeal  of 
humor  and  of  temperament,  which  is  never  far 
removed  from  imprudence.  But  the  zeal  that 
springs  from  charity  is  meek  and  patient ;  is 
neither  proud  nor  irascible  ;  it  hates  vice,  but 
loves  the  sinner;  it  undertakes  nothing  lightly 
or  unseasonably  ;  it  yields  not  to  disappoint 
ment;  it  opposes  patience  to  insensibility,  and 
awaits  the  moments  appointed  by  God,  without 
disgust  or  despondence ;  it  counts  not  its  pains 
and  its  toils,  and  is  less  afflicted  at  labouring  in 
vain,  than  at  the  danger  of  those  sinners  whose 
obduracy  renders  its  labors  ineffectual  :  after 
having  been  a  thousand  times  unsuccessful,  it 
returns  to  its  holy  purpose,  with  increased  cha 
rity  ;  it  has  recourse,  by  turns,  to  entreaties,  to 
threats,  to  meekness,  to  a  holy  anger:  zeal  is 
ingenious,  it  tries  every  expedient,  it  discovers 
to  us  a  thousand  new  ways,  a  thousand  inno 
cent  artifices,  for  bringing  back  those,  who  are 
going  astray.  No,  my  brethren,  let  us  not  put 
humor  in  the  place  of  zeal:  let  us  show  to  our 
people,  more  of  charity  than  of  authority  ;  let 
us  not,  through  a  false  honor,  make  it  a  point 
to  put  them  down,  even  when  they  are  opposed 


FOR  THE  SALVATION  OF  SOULS.      443 

to  our  most  laudable   designs;  let  us  seek   ra 
ther  to  gain,  than  to  subject,  them  ;  let  us  not 
mingle  with  the  zeal  of  the  minister,  the   pas 
sions  and  the  harshness  of  the  man :   let  us  not 
undertake  all  things  at  once,  lest  we  fail  in  all: 
let  not  our  self-love  urge  too  hastily  a  project, 
which  a  wise  patience  may  better  accomplish  ; 
and  to  every  contradiction  let  us  oppose  a  still 
meeker  and  more  unruffled  zeal.     The  work  of 
God  is  always  the  fruit  of  pains  and  difficulties: 
let  us  not  regard  success  as  a  glory  that  ought 
to  be  ours,    it  is  a  glory   that  belongs  to  God 
alone ;  for  whatever  we  contribute  on  our  part, 
is  more  calculated  to  retard,  than  to  advance, 
the  consummation  of  the   holy    work.      Let  us 
then  await  success  with  the  tranquillity  of  faith, 
and  with  humble  confidence ;  we  shall  hasten  it 
more  by  our  prayers  and  our  sighs,  than  by  the 
violent  counsels  of  impetuous  zeal.     We  must 
expect  to  disgust  and   revolt  the  sick,  to  whom 
we  present  only  bitter  remedies;  but  let  us,  at 
the  same  time,   remember,    that  those  sick  are 
our  children,  and  that  our  love  for  them,  ought 
to  increase,  in  proportion  as  their  opposition  to 
medicine,  renders  their  disease  the   more  dan 
gerous.     Your  zeal  will  not  be  then  taxed  with 
imprudence :    your  good   intentions   will    then 


444       ON  THE  ZEAL  OF  THE  CLERGY 

find  the  protection  which  they  deserve :  we  our 
selves  w  ill  share  in  your  pains  and  your  troubles  ; 
and  although,  w  hie'  God  forbid,  we  should  be 
unjust  enough  to  censure  you,  yet  as  it  is  not 
for  UP,  nor  to  please  us,  but  for  the  glory  of 
Jesus  Christ,  that  you  labour  to  discharge  the 
ministry  that  has  been  entrusted  to  you,  you 
will  have  wherewith  to  console  yourselves,  in 
secret,  before  God,  who  is  a  more  faithful  wit 
ness,  and  a  more  equitable  rcmunerator,  of  your 
sincerity  and  your  toils,  than  the  injustice  of 
men. 

Permit  me  then,  to  conclude,  in  saying  to 
you  with  the  Apostle  :  I  conjure  you  to  revive 
in  yourselves,  the  grace  of  the  ministry,  if  you 
have  had  the  misfortune  of  suffering'  it  to  lan 
guish,  or,  perhaps,  to  become  extinct;  that 
grace  of  zeal,  of  charity,  of  patience,  of  vigi 
lance,  and  of  labor.  Cease  not  to  correct  those 
who  from  a  light  and  restless  spirit,  seem  not 
only  incapable  of  tasting  the  truths  of  salvation 
themselves,  but  who  cause  a  disrelish  for  them 
in  others  ;  and  whose  murmurings  and  resist 
ance  are  a  perpetual  obstacle  to  the  cares  and 
pious  intentions  of  the  pastor :  make  them  sen 
sible  of  the  heavy  judgments,  which  they  are 
drawing  down  upon  their  own  head :  JRogamus 


FOR   THE   SALVATION    OF    SOULS.  445 

vos,  fraires,  compile  inquietos.*  Be  more  niild 
and  indulgent  towards  those,  whose  fall  is  more 
the  effect  of  weakness  and  frailty.,  than  of  ma 
lice  or  contempt  of  religion;  and  be  more 
moved  than  irritated,,  at  their  miseries :  animate 
their  faintheartedness  by  the  hope  of  assistance 
from  above,,  and  make  them  understand  that 
the  weaker  they  are,  and  the  less  they  rely  upon 
their  own  strength,  the  more  ought  they  to  ex 
pect  all  from  him,  who  is  always  pleased  in  ma 
nifesting  the  power  of  his  grace,  in  our  infir 
mity  :  Consolamini  pusillanuncs .  Like  the  good 
pastor,  bear  upon  your  shoulders,  the  sick,  who 
whilst  they  wish  to  be  cured,  do  not  yet  fail  to 
love  the  cause  of  their  diseases  :  uphold  the  good 
desires  which  they  unceasingly  mingle  with  their 
transgressions:  improve  this  spark  of  life,  which 
grace  still  keeps  alive  in  their  hearts ;  point  out 
the  remedy,  and  labour  to  make  it  pleasing  to 
them  :  distempers  are  never  hopeless,  so  long, 
as  the  diseased  themselves  feel  them  and  wish 
to  be  delivered  :  Suscipite  injlrmos.  Above  all, 
let  no  variety  of  cares,  no  difference  of  persons', 
change  the  equal  tenor  of  your  charity  and  of 
your  patience :  be  the  same  towards  the  rich 

*1.  Tlicssal.  c.  5.  v.  1-4.  &c. 


446 


ON    THE    ZEAL    OF    THE    CLERGY 


and  the  poor ;  towards  those  \vho  resist  you,  as 
towards    those    who    receive    your   instructions 
with   docility  :   Paticntes  cslotc  ad  omncs.    Show 
the  same   serenity  to  all :    let  all  behold   in  the 
holy  joy  of  your  countenance.,  the  hope  of  con 
version.,    if  they  are    sinners,    or   the   applause 
which   their   fidelity   deserves,  if  they  have   re 
turned  to  the  ways  of  justice:   let  them  ever  find 
in  you,  the  joy  of  a  father  delighted  to  see  his 
children  :    let  it  appear  to  all,  that  their  pre 
sence  is  your  sweetest  consolation  ;  and   never 
repel   even    the  sinners  that  approach   you,  by 
that  gloomy  and  discontented  air,  which  seems 
to  announce    to  them,    that    their   salvation  is 
hopeless  :    Semper  gaudelc.     In    fine,   let   your 
cares  be  accompanied  by  prayer;   speak  to  God 
of  the  disorders  of  your  people,  still  more  fre 
quently  than  to  themselves  :  lament  before  him, 
more,  over  the  obstacles,  which  your  own  infi 
delities  put  in  the  way  of  their  conversion,  than 
over   those   which    arise  from    their  obstinacy  : 
at  his  feet,  ascribe  to  yourself  alone,  the  fail 
ure,  or  the  little  fruit,  of  your  ministry  :    like 
a   tender   father,    excuse,    in    his  presence,  the 
faults   of  your  children,  and  accuse  only  your 
self  :  bear  them  without  ceasing,  in  your  heart, 
when  you  present  yourself  before  him ;  let  your 


FOR   THE   SALVATION   OF  SOULS.  447 

grief  and  your  weeping'  over  their  transgres 
sions,  ensure  the  success  of  your  instructions 
and  of  your  cares  ;  and  remember  that  you  will 
always  toil  in  vain,  if  constant  prayer  do  not 
draw  down  upon  your  labors,  that  unction  and 
those  graces,  which  alone  can  render  them  use 
ful  :  Sine  intermissions  orate  .  .  .  Ipse  autem 
Deus  pacis  sanctificet  vos  per  omnia. — Amen. 


448  ON    THE   NECESSITY 


A  DISCOURSE 


ON 


THE  NECESSITY  AND  IMPORTANCE  OF 
RETREAT  TO  THE  CLERGY. 


Noli  negligere  gratiam,  quae  in  te  est,  quae  data  est 
tibi,  per  prophetiara  cum  impositione  manuum 
Presbyterii. 

\cglect  not  the  grace  that  is  in  thee,  rrhick  was  gire/s 
tltec  by  prophecy  y  tcitli  imposition  of  the  hands  of 
the  priesthood. 

1.  TIMOTHY,  chap.  iv.  ver,  11. 


OUCH  is  the  exhortation  which  Saint  Paul  gives, 
more  than  once,  to  his  disciple  Timothy  ;  and 
nothing  appears  to  me  better  calculated  to  pre 
vent  that  negligence,  and  that  falling  off,  of 
which  the  Apostle  speaks,  than  to  consecrate, 
as  you  do,  my  brethren,  a  few  days  in  the  year, 
to  recollection  and  retreat.  Faults  are  inevi 
table  in  the  discharge  of  the  functions  of  your 


OF   RETREAT.  449 

ministry,  and  it  is  here  that  you  call  yourselves 
to  an  account  for  them,  that  you  weep  over 
them  before  God,  and  take  the  necessary  mea 
sures  to  prevent  them  for  the  future  :  this  shall 
be  the  first  reflection.  Fervor  cools,,  the  spi 
ritual  powers  become  impaired,  the  man  as 
sumes  the  ascendant  over  the  minister ;  and  it 
is  here,  that  you  reanimate  your  languishing  zeal, 
and  renew  yourselves  in  the  first  spirit  of  your 
vocation :  this  shall  be  the  second  reflection. 
In  fine,  the  clergy  of  this  extensive  diocess  have 
need  of  example  ;  and  it  is  here  that  you  give  it, 
by  manifesting  to  them,  in  the  edifying  exact 
ness  with  which  you  come  to  recollect  your 
selves  in  this  holy  place,  the  precautions  which 
they  should  take,  that  they  may  worthily  fulfil 
their  ministry :  and  this  shall  be  the  last  reflec 
tion. 

Such,  my  brethren,  are  the  advantages  inse 
parable  from  a  retreat  in  this  holy  place,  where 
I  have  so  much  consolation  in  beholding  you 
assembled. 

FIRST    REFLECTION. 

How  holy,  my  brethren,  are  our  functions; 
how  pure  should  be  the  dispositions  which  they 
demand,  how  worthy  of  the  mysteries  which 
we  treat !  How  difficult  is  it  for  the  most^  faith- 

2  F 


450  ON    THE    NECESSITY 

ful  pastors  to  present  themselves,  every  day,  to 
perform  them,  with  that  faith,  that  zeal,  that 
purify  of  soul,  without  which,  God  spews  us 
from  his  mouth,  and  beholds  us  with  disgust  at 
the  foot  of  his  awful  and  sacred  altar  ?  Our 
daily  defects  in  these  virtues,  neither  awaken 
remorse,  nor  disturb  our  conscience:  they  di 
minish  and  destroy  our  tender  affection  towards 
God,  and  leave  us  still  tranquil  ;  they  despoil 
us  gradually,  of  those  perfect  gifts,  which  form 
holy  pastors,  and  yet  render  us  insensible  to 
our  losses.  I  speak  not  of  patience,  of  meek 
ness,  of  charity,  which  our  functions  put  often 
to  the  proof,  and  in  which  it  is  difficult  to  be 
always  on  our  guard,  against  ourselves.  How 
many  are  the  moments,  in  which,  humor, 
roughness  and  impatience,  take  the  place  of  cha 
rity  and  zeal!  How  many  the  occasions,  in  which 
disgust,  idleness,  nay,  perhaps,  secret  antipa 
thies,  and  personal  dislikes,  have  made  us  re 
fuse,  or  perform  with  a  bad  grace,  and,  as  it 
were,  in  spite  of  us,  those  services,  which  the 
necessities  of  our  people,  and  our  own  func 
tions  demanded  of  us !  How  frequently  has  false 
modesty,  and  the  fear  of  appearing  singular,  or 
ridiculous,  made  us  approve,  and  perhaps,  imi 
tate  what  we  condemned,  and  caused  us  to  for- 


OF   RETREAT.  451 

get,  to  a  certain  degree,  the  decorum  and  the 
sanctity  of  our  ministry  ? 

Yet  our  external  and  unceasing  occupations 
either  hide  this   state  of  transgression  from   us, 
or  leave  us  no  leisure  to  inquire  into  its  malice,, 
and   thus  we  do   not   even  think  of  removing 
those  obstacles,  which  our  infidelities  raise  up 
against  the    success   of  our  ministry,    towards 
others,  and  against  the  course  of  God's  mercies 
towards  ourselves.     By  degrees  we  amass,  un 
known  to  ourselves,  a  treasure  of  wrath,  a  fund 
of  infidelity,  opposed  to  the  designs  of  God  upon 
us,  which  presenting  nothing  marked  by  grie 
vous  crime,  disturbs  not  our  false  peace ;  and  as 
darkness  is  always  the  first  punishment  of  those 
infidelities,   the   more  they  are   multiplied,   the 
more    tranquil  we  become;  because  the   lights 
that  should  have  opened  our  eyes  to  their  en 
ormity,  are  gone  out.    Such,  my  brethren,  is  the 
most  ordinary  source  of  the  disorders,  and  of  the 
entire  defection  of   those,    whom  God  calls   to 
the  holy  ministry :  there  is  scarce  any  fault  that 
can  be  esteemed  light  in  us ;   the  more  God  re 
quires  and  expects  from  us,  the  more  irritated 
is  he,  when  we  are  wanting  to  his  divine  plans; 
the  more  intimately  we  are  consecrated  to  his 
service,  the  more  does  the  slightest  blemish  de- 


452  ON    THE    NECESSITY 

file  and  deform  us,  in  his  sight.  We  are  the 
light  of  the  people,,  a  light  which  the  thinnest 
cloud  obscures,  and  renders  dark  in  the  eyes  of 
him,  who  had  established  us  as  so  many  burn 
ing  and  shining  lamps,  amidst  our  brethren  :  our 
faults  are  eclipses,  which  confound  the  order  of 
grace,  in  reference  to  the  faithful,  and  which 
leave  in  darkness,  that  portion  of  the  church, 
which  we  were  set  up  to  enlighten. 

Now,  my  brethren,  it  is  here,  that  those  faults 
which  had  disappeared,  as  it  were,  amidst  the 
bustle  of  our  functions,  rise  again  to  our  view. 
It  is  in  this  holy  retirement,  that  in  reviewing, 
by  the  light  of  faith,  the  whole  course  of  our 
ministry,  we  discover  the  places,  the  occasions, 
the  circumstances,  in  which  our  fidelity  has  fail 
ed  :  we  perceive  that,  notwithstanding  the  opi 
nion  of  men,  and  the  applause  which  they  la 
vish  on  our  apparent  regularity,  we  are  far  from 
being  of  the  number  of  those  holy  and  faithful 
ministers,  who  alone,  are  worthy  to  dispense 
the  mysteries*  of  God.  The  distance  which  we 
find  between  what  we  are,  and  what  we  ouglit 
to  be ;  between  the  sublime  sanctity  of  our 
state,  and  the  weaknesses,  the  miseries,  and  the 
tepidity  of  OUK  lives,  strikes,  humbles  and  ter 
rifies  us.  We  weep  over  our  past  infidelities. 


OF   RETREAT.  453 

and  form  a  thousand  holy  resolutions  of  amend 
ment,,  a  thousand  purposes  of  a  more  pious,, 
more  active,  and  more  sacerdotal  life  :  we  enter 
into  all  the  details  of  our  external  conduct ;  \ve 
examine  the  times,  the  places,  the  conjunctures, 
in  which  our  frailty  has  been  surprised;  we 
enter  into  ourselves,  to  inquire  into  the  source 
of  the  evil,  and  discover  those  inclinations,  which 
have  conspired  with  dangerous  occasions  to  ef 
fect  our  fall:  we  prepare,  at  a  distance,  the  pro 
per  remedies  for  our  vices,  and  take  those  wise 
precautions,  which  may  prevent  us  from  being 
again  surprised:  thus  we  return  to  our  func 
tions,  to  that  holy  warfare  in  which  we  serve, 
provided  with  new  arms ;  and  we  resume  the 
contest,  with  less  of  that  confidence  which  al 
ways  precedes  defeat,  but,  at  the  same  time, 
with  more  of  that  cool  and  determined  courage, 
which  ensures  victory.  A  pilot  who  has  escaped 
from  the  wreck  of  his  ship,  is  less  rash  and  ad 
venturous  ;  and  made  acquainted  by  his  own  pe 
rils  with  the  rocks  on  which  he  has-been  cast 
away,  he  takes  more  vigilant  measures  to  avoid 
them  in  every  subsequent  voyage.  And  what 
ought  still  more  to  endear  this  holy  exercise  to 
you,  my  brethren,  and  make  you  feel  more 
strongly  the  predilection  of  God's  mercy  in  this 


454  ON   THE   NECESSITY 

instance,,  towards  you,  is  the  consideration,  that 
infidelities  are  common,  amongst  those  who  are 
called  to  the  holy  ministry,  and  that  those  re 
grets  and  changes  which  a  sincere  and  a  tender 
piety  produces,  are  very  rare.  The  greater  part 
live  to  the  end  of  their  course,  as  they  had  lived 
in  beginning  it ;  if  they  change,  it  is  for  the 
-worse;  for  having  at  first  exhibited  some  appear 
ance  of  regularity  and  zeal,  they  quickly  begin 
to  disclose  all  those  vicious  inclinations,  which  a 
specious  outset  had  concealed,  and  which,  weary 
of  further  constraint,  now  burst  forth  with  in 
creased  violence  and  greater  scandal.  We,  every 
day,  see,  in  the  world,  amongst  the  faithful,  men 
who,  visited  by  grace,  change  their  lives,  and 
from  being  great  sinners,  become  the  example 
and  the  edification  of  an  entire  city :  but  such 
changes  are  not  to  be  found  amongst  the  clergy; 
what  they  are  once,  they  always  continue  to  be : 
it  would  seem  that,  raised  above  the  Angels  by 
our  functions,  our  first  capital  transgressions 
are,  like  theirs,  beyond  all  hope  of  repentance 
and  return.  And  why  so,  my  brethren?  it  is  be 
cause  the  abuse  of  holy  things,  which  is  almost 
always  the  infallible  consequence  of  our  disor 
ders,  draw's  down  upon  us,  on  the  part  of  God, 
that  anathema,  and  that  hidden  malediction, 


OF   RETREAT.  455 

which  hardens  a  Priest  into  impenitence  and  ir- 
religion  ;  this  is  a  lamentable  truth,  over  which 
we  have  had,,  more  than  once,  to  mourn  :  pe 
nalties  and  corrections  become  useless  to  these 
unfaithful  ministers ;  and  with  grief  do  we  be 
hold  them  quitting  those  retreats,  into  which 
our  authority  had  forced  them,  without  a  single 
sentiment  of  piety  or  of  repentance,  and  more 
determined  than  ever,  to  continue  their  disorders 
and  their  scandals.  So  when  we  publicly  impose 
this  holy  exercise  on  them,  it  is  rather  to  cover 
them  with  shame,  than  through  any  hope  which 
we  entertain  of  their  amendment ;  we  wish  to 
repair  the  honor  of  the  church,  by  this  public 
and  signal  reprobation  of  their  notorious  scan 
dals,  but  we  hope  not  for  their  conversion. 

SECOND    REFLECTION. 

But,  my  brethren,  although  we  should  be  so 
happy  as  to  live  in  the  discharge  of  our  minis 
try,  exempt  from  those  daily  infidelities  inse 
parable  from  human  weakness,  and  even  from 
the  dissipations  attached  to  our  functions;  al 
though  we  should  have  no  need  of  coming  here 
to  recollect  ourselves,  that  we  might  weep  be 
fore  God  over  our  faults,  and  take  more  certain 
measures  to  avoid  them  for  the  future ;  do  we 


456 


ON    THE    NECESSITY 


not  yet  feel  that  our  first  fervor  cools  every  day? 
that  the  tender  piety  which  once  was  ours, 
wears  away  by  the  very  use  of  holy  things  ; 
that  the  sanctity  of  our  duties  makes  on  us, 
each  day,  less  lively  impressions;  that  what 
seemed  to  us,  at  first,  indispensable  obligation, 
appears  now  but  a  state  of  perfection,  to  attain 
which  is  not  given  to  all ;  that,  in  fine,  we 
walk  more  languidly  in  those  ways,  in  which  we 
once  ran  with  such  edifying  swiftness  and  zeal? 
Now,  it  is  in  this  place,  my  brethren,  where  we 
first  tasted  and  imbibed  the  spirit  of  the  priest 
hood,  that  we  should  come  to  renew  and  re 
vive  it,  when  it  begins  to  decay :  such  is  my 
second  reflection. 

Yes,  my  brethren,  this  decay  of  piety  and 
fervor,  to  which  even  the  most  faithful  pastors 
are  liable,  is  like  a  hidden  disease,  which  under 
mines  and  exhausts  us,  and  by  little  and  little 
conducts  us  to  utter  dissolution.  It  is  one  of 
those  maladies,  which  do  not  manifest  themselves 
by  any  visible  or  distinctive  symptoms,  but 
which  yet,  every  day,  waste  away  the  strength, 
and  nip  the  bloom  of  health;  and  for  which 
the  healing  art  knows  no  other  remedy,  than  to 
send  the  languishing  patient  to  his  native  air. 
Now,  my  brethren,  it  is  here  that  we  have  been 


OF   RETREAT.  45? 

born.,  ill  the  priesthood ;  and  in  this  holy  place, 
is  io  be  found,,  as  it  were,,  the  native  air  of  the 
ministry,  which  we  must  come  to  breathe  when 
we  feel  that  our  strength  is  failing;  that  our 
piety  begins  to  languish ;  that  our  zeal  is  re 
laxed,  and  that  the  derangement  of  our  interior 
threatens  the  total  dissolution  of  our  spiritual 
life.  The  longer  we  delay  this  step,  the  more 
inveterate  does  the  disease  become,  for  the  ob 
jects  by  which  we  are  surrounded  in  this  world, 
far  from  affording  any  remedy,  tend  but  to  aug 
ment  and  heighten  its  malignity  :  even  the  ve 
ry  exercise  of  our  ministry,  far  from  rousing 
us  from  our  torpor,  becomes  as  a  medicine  to 
which,  our  disorders  have  been  long  habituated, 
and  which  having  lost  its  virtue  by  being  of 
ten  tried,  almost  always,  rather  aggravates  than 
lightens  their  virulence :  hence,  through  the 
want  of  those  dispositions,  and  of  that  spirit 
of  piety,  which  ought  to  sanctify  all  our  duties, 
they  are  changed  into  abuses,  and  thus  those 
resources  of  salvation  are  turned  against  our 
selves.  This  state,  my  brethren,  has  its  dan 
gers,  which  are  great  in  proportion  as  they  af 
fect  and  affright  us  the  less.  We  suffer  our 
selves  to  repose  undisturbed,  in  habitual  weak 
ness  and  languor,  and  think  the  death  of  our 


458 


ON    THE    NECESSITY 


souls,  as  yet  at  a  distance  :  we  calm  those  re 
morses,,  which  conscience  will  sometimes  put 
forth,  and  those  desires  of  a  more  holy  and  a 
more  faithful  life,  which  sometimes  shoot  through 
our  lethargy,  but  which,  a  moment  after,  suf 
fer  us  to  sink  hack  into  our  accustomed  insen 
sibility.  We  think  of  ourselves,  as  the  Apostles 
did  of  Lazarus,  that  our  ailment  is  but  a  pass 
ing  sleep,  and  that  our  salvation  is  not  doubt 
ful  :  Si  dormit  salcus  erit  ;*  but  Christ  who  sees 
us  as  we  are,  judges  of  our  state,  perhaps,  ve 
ry  differently  :  Tune  dixit  Us  manifeste  Jesus  : 
Lazarus  mortuus  cst.-f  It  is  not  the  greatest 
crimes  that  we  ought  most  to  dread  :  a  fund 
of  religion,  a  pious  education,  an  established 
name  for  regularity,  a  respect  for  the  sanctity 
of  our  ministry,  is  sufficient  to  preserve  us  from 
shameful  transgressions  :  but  what  is  more  dan 
gerous,  and  more  to  be  dreaded  by  us,  is  to  al 
low  that  first  fervor,  that  spirit  of  piety,  so  es 
sential  to  our  functions,  to  become  extinct;  to 
sink  into  a  life  according  to  the  senses,  soft, 
easy  and  indulgent  ;  insensible  to  the  things  of 
heaven,  accompanied,  indeed,  by  an  apparent 
regularity,  but  destitute  of  the  true  spirit  of  in- 

*John.  c.  xi.  v.  12.         fldem.  c.  xi.  v.  14. 


OF   RETREAT.  459 

terior  life.  We  perceive  in  it  no  marked  crime, 
nor  do  \ve  advert  that  such  a  manner  of  life, 
particularly  in  a  Priest,  incessantly  occupied  in 
the  most  holy  duties,  is  of  itself,  a  grievous 
crime  in  the  sight  of  God :  we  do  not  reflect 
that  such  a  state  estranges  from  us,  the  peculiar 
regard  of  God,  and  those  special  graces  which 
he  reserves  for  faithful  pastors ;  and  that  if  we 
still  guard  ourselves  from  gross  transgressions,  it 
is,  perhaps,  but  an  artifice  of  satan,  who  would 
fear  by  shameful  sins,  to  awaken  our  remorse 
of  conscience,  and  who  prefers  leaving  us  to 
perish  more  securely,  in  the  sleep  of  death, 
into  which  he  has  cast  us.  The  tumult  of 
the  world,  in  the  midst  of  which  we  live,  far 
from  rousing  us  to  a  sense  of  our  perilous  con 
dition,  confirms  our  delusion  :  we  there  behold 
even  amongst  those  who  are  our  associates  in 
the  holy  ministry,  examples  of  disorders  which 
increase  our  false  peace,  as  we  are  exempt  from 
them  ourselves ;  and  we  fancy  that  God  is  con 
tent  with  us,  because  men  are,  or  have  reason  to 
be,  satisfied  with  our  deportment.  Witnessing 
the  excesses  of  our  clerical  brethren,  we  say  to 
ourselves,  in  the  boastful  language  of  the  Pha 
risee,  that  we  are  not  like  to  them  :  this  secret 
comparison  calms  our  conscience,  perhaps,  it 


460 


ON    THE    NECESSITY 


even  flatters  our  pride;  and  although  we  are  de 
void  of  that  interior  life  of  faith,  of  that  spirit  of 
fervor  and  zeal,  by  which  we  were  once  animated, 
our  self-love  ceases  not  to  remind  us  of  our  irre 
proachable  morals,  and  to  present  to  us  a  phan 
tom  of  our  regularity  and  virtue,  which  fills  us 
with  confidence,  and  lulls  us  to  repose.  It  is 
to  us,  then,  my  brethren,  that  the  word  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  may  be  addressed  :  Surge  qui  dor- 
mis  et  illummabit  te  Christus.*  Come  into  this 
place  of  wakefulness  and  light,  where  your  eyes 
will  re-open  to  those  truths,  which  you  once 
knew,  but  which  were  beginning  to  be  gradually 
effaced  from  your  heart.  Jesus  Christ  will  again 
discover  to  you  that  piety,  that  fervor,  that  cha 
rity,  that  disinterestedness,  which  both  your 
consecration  and  the  sublimity  of  your  func 
tions,  demand  of  you  :  you  will  find  yourselves, 
in  the  eyes  of  God,  so  far  removed  from  the 
sanctity  which  he  requires  of  you,  that  you  will 
regard  the  apparent  regularity,  the  kind  of  vir 
tue  on  which  you  relied,  as  a  soiled  and  des 
picable  rag :  Quasi  pannus  menstruatce,  uni 
verse  justitice  nostrce.-\  You  will  find  yourself 
empty,  without  sap  and  without  life  before  God  : 

*Ephes.  c.  v.  ver.  14.         f  Isaiah,  c.  Ixiv.  v.  6. 


OF   RETREAT.  461 

these  new  lights  will  di><-iose  to  you,  the  dan 
gerous  state  of  your  soul,  and  begin  to  diffuse  a 
warmth  over  its  coldness  :  God  will  address  you> 
and  those  dry  bones  will  be  reanimated  at  his 
word,  as  of  old  in  the  vision  of  the  prophet : 
Ossa  arida  audits  verbum  Dornini.*  You  will  be 
come  like  men  newly  created :  you  will  go  forth 
from  this  holy  place,  like  the  Apostles  from 
the  supper-room,  inflamed  with  heavenly  fire: 
a  holy  intoxication,  and  the  plenitude  of  the  spi 
rit  of  God,  will  make  you  despise  all  those  earth 
ly  considerations  and  that  human  respect,  which 
had  heretofore  chained  down  your  zeal,  and 
held  the  truth  in  captivity ;  will  make  you  burst 
asunder  those  unprofitable  intimacies,  which 
withheld  you  from  your  duties,  and  strengthen 
you  against  the  bad  example,  and  the  danger 
ous  occasions,  which  had  overcome,  or  weaken 
ed,  your  piety  :  your  success  will  be  proportion 
ate  to  the  new  fervor  with  which  you  shall  re- 
enter  upon  your  duties :  you  will  see  your  flock 
awakened,  as  it  were,  and  renovated  with  your 
self;  and  the  spirit  of  God,  diffused  over  the 
pastor  and  his  people,  may  again  say :  Ecce 
novafacio  omnia.^  What  a  consolation,  my  bre- 

*Ezek.  c.  xxxvii.  v.  4.         fApoc.  c.  xxi.  v.  5. 


462  ON    THE   NECESSITr 

thren,  for  a  virtuous  Priest,  to  see  the  word  of 
the  gospel  fructify,  in  that  portion  of  the  field 
of  Christ  committed  to  his  care  ;  to  behold,  eve 
ry  day,  some  souls  delivered  from  the  servitude 
of  sin  and  of  the  devil,  and  restored  to  Jesus 
Christ !  and  on  the  contrary,  what  poignant  and 
terrible  remorse  to  a  pastor,  who  has  yet  any 
faith  remaining,  to  see  that,  during  the  course  of 
a  long  ministry,  he  has  not  withdrawn  a  single 
soul  from  the  ways  of  perdition  ;  that  he  has 
not  corrected  a  single  public  or  private  disor 
der,  in  his  parish ;  nor  produced  in  any  instance 
the  slightest  emendation  in  the  morals  of  his 

o 

people !  Can  his  life,  however  irreproachable 
in  the  eyes  of  men,  quiet  his  fears  relative  to 
the  long-continued  unprofitableness  of  his  func 
tions  ?  and  ought  he  not  seek  the  cause  of  their 
inutility,  rather  in  the  tepidity  of  his  life,  in  the 
coldness  of  his  piety,  in  the  want  of  the  spirit 
of  God,  which  he  has  suffered  to  become  extinct 
by  refusing  to  come  here  to  renew  it,  than  in 
the  hardness  and  impenitence  of  his  flock  ?  It 
was  on  quitting  their  holy  retreat,  that  the  Apos 
tles,  heretofore  weak  and  timid,  jealous  of  dis 
tinctions  and  half  carnal,  appeared  new  men ;  and 
that,  as  burning  and  shining  lamps,  scattering 
themselves  among  every  people,  they  inflamed 
and  enlightened  the  whole  universe  with  that  di- 


OF   RETREAT.  463 

vine  fire,,  which  Christ  came  to  kindle  upon  earth. 
It  was  on  descending  from  his  retreat  upon  the 
mountain,  that  Elias,  with  a  holy  firmness,  re 
proached  the  kings  of  Israel,  with  the  abomi 
nation  of  their  calves  of  gold  ;  that  he  deliver 
ed  the  people  from  the  multitude  of  false  Pro 
phets  ;  that  he  brought  down  rain  from  the  hea 
vens  upon  the  earth;  that  he  gave  life  to  the 
dead,  and  deserved  to  be  transported  from  among 
men  in  a  flaming  chariot,  and  to  be  reserved  to 
oppose,  at  the  end  of  time,  the  devices  of  the 
man  of  sin.  It  was  on  coming  forth,  from  the 
wilderness  and  from  retreat,  that  Christ  himself 
commenced  his  ministry  :  it  was  in  withdraw 
ing,  from  time  to  time,  to  pray  alone,  on  the 
mountain,  that  he  continued  it  and  did  those 
works  which  no  other  had  done  before  him.  He, 
surely,  did  not  need  those  precautions,  but  he 
wished  to  leave  us  a  model  for  our  conduct,  and 
to  say  to  all,  in  the  person  of  his  Apostles,  1  have 
left  you  an  example,  that  you  may  one  day  do, 
what  you  have  seen  that  I  myself  have  prac 
tised. 

And  truly,  my  brethren,  the  pious  founders 
of  the  regular  orders,  in  those  wise  and  holy 
rules  which  they  have  given  to  their  disciples  of 
both  sexes,  have  all  prescribed  that,  every  year,, 
a  certain  time  should  be  devoted  to  recollection 


ON    THE    NtCEWITT 

and  retreat,  to  reanimate  their  fervor,  and  re 
new  them  in  the  spirit  of  their  state.  Alas! 
my  brethren,  those  inspired  men,  those  holy  pa 
triarchs  of  the  monastic  life,  were  of  opinion  that 
men  suhjected  to  an  austere  rule,  separated  from 
the  world,  consecrated  to  penance  and  prayer, 
•tript  of  all  things,  of  property,  of  worldly  hopes, 
and  of  their  very  liberty  itself  by  the  sacrifice 
of  obedience  ;  they  were  of  opinion,  that  these 
men.  in  the  depths  of  their  seclusion,  and  sur 
rounded  by  the  succors  of  religion,  would  be  like 
ly  to  relax,  to  fall  awny  from  their  fifst  fervor, 
and  languish  in  the  holy  career  on  which  they 
had  entered,  if  they  were  not  enjoined  to  spend 
every  year,  some  days  in  retreat,  and  still  more 
perfect  separation,  in  order  to  enter  into  them 
selves,  to  prevent  transgressions  yet  more  dan 
gerous,  and  grow  young,  as  it  were,  in  the 
first  spirit  of  their  holy  institute.  And  we,  my 
brethren,  exposed  unceasingly  to  the  contagion 
of  the  world,  surrounded  by  a  thousand  perils, 
obliged  to  live  amidst  so  many  scandals,  and  so 
many  bad  examples,  that  weaken  or  seduce  us  ; 
we,  often  left  to  ourselves  in  the  retired  parts  of 
the  country,  solitary,  unaided,  without  holy  so 
ciety  to  console  and  sustain  us,  having  no  sup 
port  but  ourselves,  our  languors,  our  indolence, 


01     FU/JRKAT.  4f>5 

our  inclinations  of  flesh  and  blood;   seeing  no 
thing  around  us  to  make  us  think  of  ourselves; 
we,   my  brethren,  would  pass  our  liven  in  thin 
dangerous  state,   without   apprehension  ?     We 
would  imagine,  that  the  precaution  of  devoting 
a   certain  portion  of  our  time  to  recollection,  A 
precaution  esteemed  so  necessary  to  the  most  re 
tired  souls,  is  useless  to  us?  and  would  regard  it 
as  one  of  those  indifferent  practice*?,   in    which 
there  is  more  of  zeal  than  of  necessity  ?     V\  e, 
my  brethren,  occupied,  with  functions,  the  sanc 
tity  of  which,  oftentimes  affects  u»   but  Jittie, 
and  the  vanity  and  bustle  of  which,  distracts  and 
dissipates  us;    we  who  are  incessantly  obliged 
to  probe  the   wounds,   and  sound   the  corrup 
tion,  of  consciences,  and  to  listen  to  tho&e  sin 
ful  details,   which   leave  a  thousand  dangerous 
images   in  our  mind;   we,   in  a  word,   who  are 
charged  with  a  ministry  at  which  Angels  would 
tremble,  and   finding  ourselves   from  Jong  u«e, 
daily  less  touched  by  what  is  most  holy  and  most 
terrific  in   iU   functions,  and   consequently  ac 
quitting  ourselves  of  our  duties  with  le**  recol 
lection  and  piety  ;  we  would  leave  the  benefits 
to  be  derived  from  retreat,  to  recluses  who  ought 
not  to  stand  in   need  of  it;  and  amidst  the  in 
numerable  perils  of  our  state,  would  deem,  our- 

2  o 


466  ON   THE   NECESSITY 

selves  secure,  without,  at  least,  taking  time  to 
consider  them,  or  without  examining  whether 
our  fidelity  has  ever  failed  in  the  hour  of  dan 
ger?  we,  my  brethren,  who  are  set  up  to  be 
the  pastors  and  the  models  of  the  regulars ;  we 
who  are  raised  by  our  ministry,  to  a  degree  of 
grace  and  of  authority,  which  demands  of  us 
greater  perfection  and  superior  sanctity  ;  we,  in 
fine,  who  are  the  shepherds  and  chiefs  of  the 
flock,  of  which  they  are  but  the  members  and 
the  sheep. 

THIRD    REFLECTION. 

And  finally,  my  brethren,  to  motives  so  inte 
resting,  and  so  capable  of  touching  every  minis 
ter  consecrated  to  the  priestly  functions,  permit 
me  to  add  a  new  reflection,  which  peculiarly  re 
gards  you.  The  more  extensive  this  diocess  is, 
the  more  it  is  to  be  feared,  that  the  ancient  spi 
rit  of  the  ministry,  may  become  extinct  in  it  by 
little  and  little.  The  distance  of  places  deprives 
us  of  the  knowledge  of  many  disorders,  and  pre 
vents  us  from  applying  the  proper  remedies ;  re 
moteness  from  the  source,  often  causes  the  dis 
tant  branches  of  the  stream  to  languish  for  their 
proper  supply:  the  evil  gains  insensibly,  and  the 
more  destructively,  as  its  progress  is  in  secret 
and  far  from  our  eyes,  and  as  it  must  break 


OF   RETREAT,  467 

forth  into  scandals  and  disorders  of  magnitude., 
before  it  can  reach  us.     What  remedy  against 
a  distemper  which  may  become  general,  and  by 
degrees  infect  all  ?   The  remedy  is,  my  brethren, 
that  God,  who  watches  over  this  extensive  dio- 
cess,  over  this  ancient  and  distinguished  portion 
of  his  church,  towards  which  we  must  not  doubt 
that  the  prayers  of  so  many  of  our  holy  prede 
cessors,  prostrate  before  the  throne  of  his  glory, 
and  incessantly  occupied  with  the  necessities  of 
a  flock,  which  to  them,  was  once  so  dear,  at 
tract  the  peculiar  regards  of  the  divine  mercy 
and  protection  ;  is,  I  say,  that  God  always  pre 
serves  in  it  a  certain  number  of  faithful   pas 
tors,  venerable  for  their  age  and  for  their  piety, 
punctual  in  coming  to  this  sacred  place,  to  en 
ter  into  themselves,   and   renew  in  themselves, 
the  spirit  of  their  holy  vocation  :  it  is  their  ex 
ample  that  animates  the  new  ministers,  and  that 
holds  out  to  them,  that  model  and  rule  of  con 
duct,  to   which  they   ought  to  conform.     You 
are,   then,    my   brethren,    that   precious  leaven 
which  the  Almighty  preserves  in  this  large  dio- 
cess,  not  only  to  save  the  whole  mass  from  un- 
soundness  and  corruption,  but  to  sanctify  it  by  lit 
tle  and  little ;  to  spread  itself  more  widely  and  to 
increase  its  own  activity  and  benediction  :   from 


468  ON    THE    NECESSITY 

you,  it  is,  that  the  spirit  of  the  priesthood  flows 
upon  the  younger  pastors.  On  their  entrance 
into  the  ministry,  they  find  in  you,  a  public  and 
respectable  disavowal  of  the  dieedi  tying  conduct 
of  many  of  their  brethren,  by  whose  example 
they  might  have  been  seduced  :  it  is  a  strong 
and  imrnoveable  barrier  raised  by  the  goodness 
of  God,  and  by  which  the  contagion  is  prevent 
ed  from  ever  becoming  general.  Dispersed,  by 
the  secret  order  of  providence,  through  the  vari 
ous  parts  of  this  large  diocess,  you  are  placed,  as 
it  were,  by  the  hand  of  God,  each  in  his  pecu 
liar  situation,  to  preserve  your  neighbourhood, 
and  contain  by  your  example,  your  brethren, 
who  surround  you.  If  they  do  not  imitate  you, 
at  least,  they  have  continually  before  their  eyes, 
what  they  ought  to  imitate  ;  if  your  example 
does  not  induce  them  to  fulfil  the  duties  of 
their  ministry,  at  least,  it  does  not  sufter  them 
to  remain  ignorant  of  those  duties.  The  shame 
of  following  a  line  of  conduct  so  different  from 
yours ;  the  grace  of  their  ordination  which  is 
not  yet,  perhaps,  altogether  extinguished;  their 
education  in  this  holy  place,  and  the  sacred 
truths  in  which  they  have  been  instructed  ;  these 
have  their  effect  sooner  or  later ;  they  begin  to 
follow  your  steps  at  a  distance  ;  they  advance 


OF    RETREAT.  469 

and  attain  to  the  same  virtues,  and  thus  the  spi 
rit  of  the  priesthood  is  preserved  and  perpetu 
ated  amongst  us.  Yes.,  my  brethren,  it  is  with 
the  army  of  the  church,  as  with  that  of  the  em 
pire  :  in  the  latter,  a  small  number  of  men, 
inured  to  the  hardships  and  perils  of  war,  in  cer 
tain  famous  battalions,  are  sufficient  to  infuse 
into  the  new  recruits,  and  perpetuate  in  a  regi 
ment,  that  ancient  spirit  of  valor,  and  that  martial 
renown  by  which  they  have  been  distinguished 
from  other  troops ;  it  would  seem,  that  on  his  ve 
ry  entrance  into  the  band,  the  raw  soldier  catches 
the  generous  spirit  which  fires  the  bosom  of  the 
veteran  :  similar  is  the  case  of  a  diocess  :  a  small 
number  of  tried  and  virtuous  pastors,  keeps  alive 
and  perpetuates  in  it  that  first  spirit  of  the  priest 
hood,  and  that  reputation  of  regularity  and  dis 
cipline  for  which  itself  has  been  distinguished  : 
the  newly  arrived  clergy  seem  to  breathe  the  no 
ble  sentiments  and  lofty  devotion,  as  soon  a*>  they 
are  aggregated  to  the  body,  of  those  veterans 
of  religion  :  they  would  dread  the  reproach  of 
cowardice,  and  the  shame  of  being  regarded  as 
the  opprobrium  of  the  sacred  host,  were  they 
to  depart  from  the  high  spirit  and  devoted  bra 
very,  which  appears  to  pervade  and  sway  the 
ranks,  to  which  they  belong.  We  look  upon 


470  ON   THE   NECESSITY 

you  then,  my  brethren,  as  charged  with  the 
precious  deposite  of  the  spirit  of  the  priesthood, 
which  in  this  diocess  is  preserved  in  your  hands, 
and  which  passes  from  them  to  those,  whom  we, 
every  day,  associate  to  the  holy  ministry.  Perse 
vere  then,  my  dearest  brethren,  and  be  not  over 
come  in  the  Apostolic  career,  in  which  you  have 
hitherto  appeared  at  the  head  of  those  pastors 
who  have  been  running1  with  you  :  be  mindful, 
that  you  are  the  chief  pillars  of  the  great  edifice, 
which  is  confided  to  us,  and  that,  should  you 
wince  or  totter,  it  must  be  shaken  to  its  very 
base.  We  speak  to  you  here,  as  did  Saint  Cy 
prian  to  the  holy  virgins,  the  most  illustrious 
portion  of  his  flock  ;  we  address  you  rather  with 
the  tenderness  of  a  father,  than  with  the  autho 
rity  of  a  superior :  Plus  affectione  quam  po- 
tcstate.  Your  infidelities  would  be  regarded 
and  followed,  as  a  safe  model,  by  those,  who 
seek  only  to  justify  to  themselves,  their  own 
misconduct :  the  higher  your  reputation  for  re 
gularity,  the  more  should  your  habits  bespeak 
a  respect  for  the  virtues  of  your  state.  What 
ever  you  have  been  seen  to  neglect,  in  a  single 
instance,  thev  will  always  consider  as  not  essen 
tial  to  their  duties,  and  subtract  in  practice  from 
their  acknowledged  obligations.  Assist  us  then, 


OF   RETREAT.  471 

my  brethren,,  to  support  the  weight  of  the  pas 
toral  solicitude,  under  which  we  should  yield, 
if  you,  who  are  our  co-operators,  did  not  bear 
with  us  a  portion  of  its  pressure :  return  to 
your  churches,  filled  with  that  spirit,  which  has 
animated  you,  so  long1,  and  in  which  you  have 
been,  now  again,  renovated ;  and  fill  them  w  ith 
the  abundance  of  those  graces  and  of  that  piety, 
with  which  you  are  now  replenished.  Do  not 
limit  your  zeal  for  the  house  of  God,  to  your 
own  people :  animate  your  clerical  brethren  by 
your  example,  and  by  those  sweet  insinuations 
of  charity  which  gain  the  heart:  let  them  not 
look  upon  you,  any  longer,  as  their  censor,  but 
as  their  friend  and  brother  :  avail  yourself  of 
the  advantages  which  your  regularity  gives  you 
over  them,  only  to  become  more  mild  and  cha 
ritable  towards  them,  more  ready  to  excuse  their 
weaknesses,  and  to  commend  whatever  is  praise 
worthy  in  their  actions ;  for  it  is  thus  that  vir 
tue  is  rendered  amiable,  even  to  those  who  seem 
to  have  strayed  farthest  from  her  paths.  At 
tract  by  the  kindness  of  friendship  ancl  of  cha 
ritable  forbearance,  the  confidence  of  those  mi 
nisters,  whose  conduct  corresponds  not  with  the 
sanctity  of  their  calling:  let  them  become  the 
more  dear  to  you,  in  proportion  as  they  err  : 


472 


ON    THE    NECESSITY 


be  not  disgusted  with  them,  though  they  should 
appear  to  repulse  your  tender  remonstrances : 
charity  is  patient  and  bearcth  all  things:  force 
them,  as  it  were,  to  love  you,  if  as  yet  they 
will  not  imitate  you,  and  ever  remember,  that 
in  recalling  a  single  Priest  to  his  duty,  you 
save  an  entire  people.  We  sometimes  make 
it  a  sort  of  duty  to  break  oft0  all  intercourse 
with  certain  unedifying  pastors  :  we  shun 
them  as  so  many  anathemas,  and  avoid,  with 
a  kind  of  haughtiness,  whatever  might  oblige 
us  to  hold  any  communication  with  them :  it 
would  seem  that  we  gloried  in  making  them 
feel  the  difference  between  them  and  ourselves : 
this  is  not  the  spirit  of  Jesus  Christ,  but  the 
spirit  of  those  two  uninstructed  disciples,  who 
wished  to  bring  down  fire  from  heaven  on  a 
sinful  and  infidel  city.  I  know  that  we  must 
not  authorize  the  disorders  of  our  confreres,  by 
an  assiduity  of  intercourse  that  would  seem  to 
approve  them :  but  there  is  pride  and  inhu 
manity  in  abandoning  them  because  they  are 
working  their  own  perdition.  Our  tenderness 
for  them  ought  to  be  redoubled,  in  proportion 
as  their  maladies  approach  the  crisis ;  and  we 
should  make  them  feel,  by  acts  of  kindness,  and 
by  demonstrations  of  friendship,  that  they  are 


OF   RETREAT.  473 

not  yet  without  resource^  and  that  their  condition 
is  not  considered  altogether  hopeless.  Hearts 
that  are  insensible  to  truth,  are  not  always  so 
to  the  tender  offices  of  charity ;  we  frequently 
aggravate  the  evil,  by  condemning  it  without 
reserve,  and  sometimes  correct  and  bring  back 
the  disorderly.,  by  supporting  them  with  be 
nignity.  I  have  dwelt  thus  long  on  this  point, 
my  brethren,,  because  it  has  appeared  to  me  that 
a  difference  of  morals  and  of  conduct  almost 
always  creates  a  kind  of  alienation  between  the 
virtuous  and  the  bad  Priests ;  because  the  only 
resource  for  the  latter  is  to  frequent  the  society 
of  faithful  pastors ;  and  because  it  is  essential  to 
facilitate  to  them  that  intercourse,,  in  order  that 
your  example  may  become  serviceable  in  their 
regard. — Amen. 


474  OW    THE    MODESTY 


A  DISCOURSE: 


THE  MODESTY  OF  THE  CLERGY. 


Modestia  vestra  nota  sit  omnibus  hominibus. 

Let  your  modesty  be  known  to.  all  men. 

PIHUPPIANS.  chap.  iv.  ver.  5 


ought  to  be  ever  mindful,  my  brethren, 
that  the  Lord,  whose  ministers  we  are,  observes 
and  watches  us,  and  is  always  near  us;  and  that 
as  we  are  charged  with  the  interests  of  his  glo 
ry,  his  eyes  are  continually  upon  us,  lest  we 
should  suffer  the  slightest  indecency  to  tarnish 
and  dishonour  his  high  commission. 

So,  my  brethren,  nothing  is  more  strongly 
recommended  in  the  sacred  volume,  or  in  the 
canons  of  the  church,,  thau  the  modesty  of  those 


OF  THE   CLERGY.  475 

who  are  consecrated  to  the  Lord.  The  same  de 
cency,,  the  same  circumspection,  the  same  majesty 
that  attends  them  to  the  altar,  should  accompany 
them  in  every  place ;  and  as  they  are,  every 
where,  the  envoys  of  Jesus  Christ,,  and  every 
where  represent  his  sacred  person,,  they  ought 
every  where  to  sustain  the  dignity  of  this  cha 
racter,  by  the  wisdom  of  their  discourse,  by  the 
decency  of  their  dress.,  and  by  the  seriousness 
of  all  their  actions. 

FIRST    REFLECTION. 

I  say,  by  the  wisdom  of  their  discourse.  You 
know,  my  brethren,  what  the  gospel  exacts,  in 
this  particular,  even  from  the  simple  faithful  : 
Christ  declares  to  them,  without  exception,  that 
they  shall  render  a  rigid  account,  not  only  for 
those  licentious  words,  which  ought  not  even 
to  be  named,  as  Saint  Paul  says,  amongst  chris- 
tians ;  not  only  for  those  low  jests  and  dis 
courses  of  buffoonery  which,  according  to  the 
same  Apostle,  are  not  becoming  in  Saints;  not 
only  for  those  words  of  malignity,  of  hatred,  of 
bitterness  and  slander,  which  extinguish  in  us 
the  spirit  of  charity,  and  render  us  the  mur 
derers  of  our  brethren  ;  not  only  for  those  words 
of  anger,  of  passion  and  of  rage,  which  deprive 


476  ON    THE    MODESTY 

us  of  that  sweetness  and  meekness,  to  which  is 
promised  the  eternal  possession  of  the  land  of 
the  living ;  but  even  of  a  single  idle  word : 
DC  quocunque  verbo  otioso*  This  is  not  an 
exhortation  designed  merely  to  animate  us  to 
sanctify  our  discourse  ;  it  is  a  law  to  the  infrac 
tion  of  which  is  attached  the  menace,  that  we 
shall  one  day,  give  a  severe  account  of  it.  It 
is  not  a  counsel:  Christ  did  not  say  to  the  young 
man  who  would  not  sell  his  goods,  and  renounce 
all  to  follow  him,  that  he  would,  one  day,  make 
him  account  for  this  refusal;  but,  he  says  to 
every  Christian,  who  shall  waste  his  time  in  idle 
and  useless  words,  that  even  one  such  shall  be 
a  subject  of  reproach,  and  shall  be  written  in 
the  terrible  account  which  the  sovereign  judge 
will  exact  of  each  one  of  us.  But,  whence 
this  severity  so  disproportionate,  in  appearance, 
to  the  weakness  of  man,  and  so  inconsistent 
with  the  most  innocent  bonds  of  society  ?  It 
springs  from  the  very  nature  of  the  Christian  vo 
cation  :  it  arises  from  that  primary  principle,  that 
all  Christians  are  Saints  ;  that  their  conversation 
should  be  in  heaven  ;  that  whether  we  speak,  or 
act,  we  should  do  all  for  the  name,  and  for  the 

*  Matthew,  c.  xii.  T.  3. 


OF   THE    CLERGY.  477 

glory  of  Jesus  Christ;  that  the  time  of  the  pre 
sent  life,,  is  but  a  rapid  moment.,  destined  to 
ensure  to  us  an  immense  and  eternal  weight  of 
glory ;  and  that  we  cannot,  therefore,  without 
prevarication,  waste  a  single  instant  of  it,  in 
actions,  or  in  discourses  which  have  no  refer 
ence  to  salvation. 

Now,  my  brethren,  if  the  law,  which  regu 
lates  the  conversation  of  the  simple  faithful,  is 
so  severe ;  if  the  gospel  prescribes  such  circum 
spection,  such  reserve,  such  modesty  in  dis 
course,  as  to  impute  to  them,  even  one  idle  wrord 
as  a  transgression,  what  will  it  not  exact  from 
the  ministers  of  Jesus  Christ. 

Can  the  mouth  of  the  Priest,  sanctified  by 
the  sacred  words,  which  he  utters  every  day 
at  the  altar,  and  consecrated  by  the  body  and 
blood  of  Jesus  Christ,  with  which  he  is  there 
nourished,  open,  on  quitting  the  awful  scene, 
to  frivolous,  foolish  and  profane  discourses  ?  he 
has  just  raised  his  tongue  aloft  to  heaven,  to 
the  very  bosom  of  God,  to  bring  down  the  word 
made  man,  upon  the  altar,  and  can  he,  a  mo 
ment  after,  trail  it  through  the  filth  and  igno 
miny  of  the  earth,  by  employing  it  in  vain  and 
indecent  words  ?  Posucrent  in  ccdum  os  suum 
et  lingua  eorum  transivit  in  terra.*  What 

••*  Psalm.  72.  v.  9. 


478 


ON    THE    MODESTY 


should  issue  from  a  mouth,  foaming  as  it  were 
with  the  blood  of  Jesus,  from  a  mouth,  which 
has  just  descended  from  heaven,  and  brought 
thence  down  on  the  earth,  the  Lamb  without 
spot,  together  with  the  myriads  of  celestial  spi 
rits  that  follow  and  adore  him  ?  What  should 
issue  from  it,  but  sacred  and  heavenly  words, 
the  canticle  of  the  host  which  incessantly  attends 
the  Lamb,  words  of  praise,  of  benediction  and 
gratitude?  Besides,  my  brethren,  the  lips  of 
the  Priest,  are  the  repository  of  knowledge ;  the 
law  of  God  is  put  into  our  mouth  that  we  may, 
without  ceasing,  announce  it  to  the  people; 
and  when  the  spirit  of  God  calls  us  to  the  holy 
ministry,  it  says  to  us,  as  it  said  of  old,  to  the 
Prophet :  behold  I  have  put  my  words  in  thy 
mouth,  that  thou  mayest  plant  the  heavens  and 
found  the  earth  :  Posui  vcrba  mca  in  ore  tuo.  .  . 
ul  plantcs  coclos  ct  fundes  terram:*  that  is  to 
say,  that  you  may  make  of  the  people  confided 
to  you,  as  it  were,  a  new  heaven,  and  a  new 
earth  ;  that  you  may  accustom  them  to  regard 
me  as  the  only  God  worthy  of  their  homage, 
and  of  their  affections ;  that  they  may  learn  to 
consider  themselves  a  holy  people,  entirely  con- 

*  Isaiah,  c.  li.  v.  16. 


OF   THE   CLERGY.  479 

secrated  to  me  ;  that  the  heaven  and  the  earth 
which  they  behold  are,    indeed,,    the  works  of 
my  hands,  but  that  they  deserve  neither  their 
homage.,  nor  their  love ;  and  that  I  destine  for 
them   a  heaven    more   bright  and  durable.,   an 
earth  more   holy  and  eternal,   where  they  will 
enjoy  in  the  society  of  the  elect,  delights  which 
the  eye  has  never  seen.,  and  which   no  mortal 
lias  ever  tasted.     Does  it  not  hence  follow,  my 
brethren,    that  our  tongue  is  no   longer  ours? 
that  it  is  consecrated  to  the  law  of  God,  and  to 
the  edification  of  the  people;   that  low  humor, 
buffoonery  and  indecent  discourse  may  be  but 
illicit   amusements  in  the  mouth  of  the  faithful, 
but  that  in  ours,  as  it  is  said  by  a  Father  of  the 
church,  they  are  blasphemous  and  profane?    It 
is  far  from  my  intention,  to  interdict  innocent 
gaiety  and  chearful  relaxation  :  but  what  I  wish 
to  impress  on  you,  my  brethren,  is,  that  our  con 
verse  should  be  always  stamped  with  a  peculiar 
character  of  piety,  of  gravity  and  of  modesty  : 
that  in  your  intercourse  with  your  clerical  bre 
thren,    you  ought  to  edify  each  other  by  holy 
joy,  and  animate  one  another  by  words  of  cha 
rity,    of  truth,    and  of  benediction;    that    you 
should  banish  from  your  conversation,  all  pro 
fane  and  immoderate  mirth  ;  all  low  pleasantry; 


480 


ON   THE    MODESTY 


all  the  indecency  of  worldly  discourse ;  and  not 
imagine,  as  too  often  happens,  that  because  you 
are  in  a  society  of  Priests,  \vhere  there  is  no 
lay-man  to  be  scandalized,  you  are  permitted 
to  indulge  in  those  excesses  of  discourse,  and  in 
that  extravagant  mirth,  of  which  you  would  be 
ashamed  in  the  presence  of  the  world ;  as  if  you 
owed  nothing  to  yourselves,  or  to  the  sacred 
character  which  you  bear  ;  as  if  Jesus  Christ, 
who  sees  you,  were  a  spectator  less  to  be  fear 
ed  and  respected  than  men  ;  as  if  conversation 
were  to  become  more  innocent,  and  less  unwor 
thy  of  the  sanctity  of  our  state,  merely  because 
it  is  uttered  before  the  very  persons  whom  it 
dishonours  most;  as  if,  in  fine,  it  were  permitted 
you,  to  use  among  yourselves,  and  at  a  distance 
from  the  world,  language  which  the  world  it 
self,  through  respect  for  your  character,  would 
not  allow  itself  to  use  in  your  presence :  wlmt 
I  wish  to  impress  on  you,  is,  that  by  neglect 
ing  to  measure  your  words,  when  you  con  verso 
with  your  brethren  in  the  ministry,  you  will  ac 
custom  yourselves  to  practise  the  same  indis 
cretion  and  licentiousness  before  the  world ; 
some  go  so  far  as  to  take  a  lamentable  pride  in 
this  ignominy,  and  fancy  that  they  render  their 
presence  more  acceptable^  and  give  a  new  charm 


OF   THE   CLERGY.  481 

to  their  discourse,  when  they  cast  aside  that  de 
corous  reserve,  and  that  holy  gravity  which  even 
the  world  itself  expects  from  them.  Yes,  my 
brethren,  there  are  Priests  to  be  seen,  more 
worldly,  more  unrestrained,  more  indiscreet  in 
discourse,  than  even  worldlings  themselves  :  no 
thing-  serious,  nothing  worthy  of  their  state, 
nothing  to  edify  ever  issues  from  their  lips  :  the 
world,  the  vanity,  the  disorders,  which  perhaps, 
lurk  in  their  hearts,  are,  as  it  were,  exhaled  and 
manifested  in  their  conversation.  Are  these, 
my  brethren,  the  organs  of  the  Holy  Ghost? 
are  these  the  mouths  consecrated  to  Jesus  Christ, 
and  destined  to  bear  his  name  and  his  law,  be 
fore  the  people  of  the  earth  ?  are  these  the  voices 
crying  in  the  wilderness  of  this  world,  the  he 
ralds  of  heaven,  sent  to  prepare  the  way  of  the 
Lord,  and  to  make  straight,  the  crooked  paths 
of  sinners?  is  this  the  salt  of  the  earth,  to  pu 
rify  and  preserve  from  corruption?  are  these 
the  envoys  of  Jesus  Christ,  to  bear  the  word  of 
reconciliation  through  the  world  ?  or  rather,  are 
they  not  the  emissaries  of  his  enemy — the  prince 
of  the  world,  to  form  followers  to  him,  and  ex 
tend  the  bounds  of  his  cursed  empire  ?  What 
a  crime,  my  brethren,  for  a  Priest  to  profane  his 
tongue,  that  was  destined  for  functions  so  holy 


482  Off   THE    MODESTY 

and  so  sublime !     What  a  crime,  to  make  the 
venerable  instrument  of  the  people's  salvation, 
the   fatal   occasion   of    their   perdition  or   their 
scandal !     What  a  crime,  to  convert  the  sword 
of  tire  word,  which  God  puts  into  the  mouth  of 
his  ministers,  to  pierce  the  utmost  depths  of  the 
soul's  corruption,  and  secure  its  life,  by  cutting 
away  its  unsoundness,  to  convert  it,  I  say,  into 
a  poisoned  and  murderous  sword,  which  causes 
mortification   and  death:    Et  posuit    os  mcum 
quasi  gladium  acutum*     And  yet,  my  brethren, 
a  minister,  on  quitting  those  disgusting  exhibi 
tions  of  buffoonery  and  licentiousness,  will  go 
up  to  the  altar,  and  pronounce  the  awful  words 
which  Angels  themselves  are  not  permitted  to 
utter?   and  will  ascend  the  Christian  pulpit  to 
announce  to   his   people  the  chaste  law  of  the 
Moat    High,    and  the    weighty    and    sorrowful 
truths  of  the  gospel?   that   mouth,  a  thousand 
times  defiled  by  indecency  and  scurrility  in  dis 
course,  will  dare  to  express  the  words  of  salva 
tion  and  holiness?   But  what  grace  will  he  have 
to  exercise  a  ministry  so  solemn  and  so  divinte? 
From  a  mouth  so  dishonoured,  what  can  pro 
ceed,  to  edify  the  faithful?  to  it  the  s\yeet  ac- 

*  Isaiah,  c.  xlix,  v.  ii. 


OF   THE    CLERGY.  483 

cents  of  charity  are  unknown,  and  the  language 
of  piety  is  a  stranger.  Alas  !  he  will,  perhaps, 
carry  into  the  very  chair  of  truth,  the  indiscre 
tions  of  his  accustomed  discourse;  perhaps,  he 
will  dishonour  the  majesty  of  the  sacred  word, 
by  profane  buffoonery  ;  perhaps,  he  will  mix  up 
the  meanness,  the  indelicacy,  the  worldliness  of 
his  ordinary  expressions,  with  those  sublime 
truths,  which  none  but  lips  purified,  like  those 
of  Isaiah  by  the  fire  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  are  wor 
thy  to  announce  :  and  we  have  but  too  often 
wept  over  this  scandal,  which  has,  more  than 
once,  reached  our  ears  ;  and  it  has  but  too  fre 
quently  occurred,  that  pastors  of  low,  indecent, 
and  buffoonlike  conversation,  carry  the  very 
same  language  into  the  chair  of  doctrine  and 
truth,  and  appear  in  it,  rather  as  jugglers  and 
mountebanks,  than  as  the  venerable  ministers 
of  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ ;  so  that  the  sa 
cred  word,  destined  to  confound  the  sinner, 
and  console  and  animate  the  just,  is  nothing  in 
their  mouth  but  an  afflicting  scandal  for  the  one, 
and  a  subject  of  derision,  and  often  of  impiety, 
to  the  other.  As  our  functions  necessarily  min 
gle  us  with  persons  of  the  world,  let  them  ne 
ver  quit  our  society,  without  some  word  of  edi 
fication  ;  without  a  new  respect  for  religion  and 


481 


ON    TIIF.    MODESTY 


its  ministers;  without  some  new  desire  of  a  more 
Christian  life;  let  them  learn  in  their  converse 
with  us,  how  to  sanctify  their  intercourse  with 
one  another;  let  a  holy  joy,  a  wise  and  chari 
table  circumspection  in  our  language,  an  amia 
ble  indulgence  towards  the  defects  of  others ; 
let  Christian  maxims  touching  the  happiness  of 
the  virtuous,  the  miseries  produced  by  the  pas 
sions,  the  deceitfulness  and  inanity  of  the  world, 
render  our  commerce  more  pleasing,  our  pre 
sence  more  desirable,  our  company  more  agree 
able,  than  the  license,  the  detraction,  the  inde 
cency  and  trilling,  of  ordinary  conversation.  Let 
us  not  fear,  my  brethren,  that  we  shall  alienate 
persons  of  the  world  by  observing  the^e  rules ; 
they  expect  them  from  us.  I  admit  that  they 
will  not  seek  us,  to  make  us  take  a  part  in  their 
amusements;  and  this  omission  will,  at  least, 
spare  us  one  occasion  of  scandal  and  of  fall :  but 
they  will  seek  us,  when  they  look  for  edification  ; 
when,  weary  of  the  world,  and  of  their  passions, 
they  shall  form  the  resolution  of  beginning  a 
more  regular  and  a  more  virtuous  life  :  when 
overwhelmed  by  adversity,  they  shall  need  con 
solation,  when  smitten,  by  the  hand  of  God, 
with  dangerous  infirmities  ;  they  shall  seek  our 
ministry  to  appease  his  wrath,  and  expiate  the 


OF   THE   CLERGY.  485 

crimes  by  which  they  had  provoked  it :  we  shall 
not  partake  of  their  pleasures,,  hut  we  shall  he 
more  useful  to  them  in  the  day  of  their  necessity. 
Such  should  he  the  modesty  of  the  clergy  in  dis 
course, 

SECOND    REFLECTION. 

It  would  he  superfluous  to  add,  that  their  lan 
guage  would  edify  the  faithful  to  little  purpose, 
if  the  worldliness  of  their  exterior  were  to  he- 
come  a  new  subject  of  scandal  to  the  people. 
The  rules  of  the  church,  and  the  precautions  of 
the  sacred  canons  touching  the  modesty  of  dress 
enjoined  to  the  clergy,  are  commonly  regarded 
rather  as  niceties,  and  details  of  little  conse 
quence,  than  as  serious  and  essential  duties.  We 
flatter  ourselves  that  there  is  a  strength  of  mind 
in  despising  them ;  and  we  leave  the  rigid  ob 
servance  of  such  regulations,  to  the  scruples  and 
exactness  of  the  college.  But,  my  brethren, 
were  the  venerable  councils  by  which  they  were 
framed,  capable  of  occupying  themselves  about 
trifling  niceties?  Could  the  spirit  of  God,  that 
spirit  of  wisdom  and  of  truth,  which  presided 
over  their  deliberations,  give  us  rules,  which 
we  might  without  guilt,  treat  with  indifference 
and  contempt?  Were  the  holy  pastors  who  com- 


486  ON   THE    MODESTY 

posed  them,  the  venerahle  depositaries  of  the 
faith  and  discipline  of  their  age,  and  of  whom  the 
Holy  Ghost  made  use  to  transmit  them  down  to 
us  ;  those  pastors  who  have  enriched  the  chinch 
with  their  immortal  works,  and  left  us  so  ma 
ny  precious  monuments  of  their  learning  and 
their  superior  talents ;  were  they  unenlighten 
ed  and  narrowminded  men,  capable  of  attach 
ing  themselves  to  puerile  details,  and  of  impo 
sing  them  on  us,  as  serious  duties,  and  canoni- 
,  cal  regulations  ?  But,  my  brethren,  did  not 
God  himself  in  the  ancient  law,  regulate  the 
shape,  the  colour,  the  whole  exterior  economy 
of  the  ornaments  of  the  Pontiff,  of  the  Priests, 
and  of  the  Levites?  was  it  worthy  of  the  divine 
majesty  to  enter  into  such  details  ?  What  could 
one  form  of  vestment  contribute,  more  than 
another,  to  his  glory?  is  not  the  worship  due 
to  him,  too  noble  and  too  sublime,  to  depend 
on  so  trivial  and  arbitrary  an  object?  yet  this 
trivial  object,  constituted  an  essential  point  of 
his  worship,  and  the  Priest  who  would  have  ap 
peared  at  his  alUir,  or  in  public,  without  be 
ing  clothed  in  the  prescribed  robes,  would  have 
been  regarded  as  guilty  ot  a  profanation,  and 
be  stoned,  perhaps,  lor  the  sacrilege.  Why  all 
this  exactness,  my  brethren?  It  is  because  what- 


OF   THE   CLERGY.  487 

ever  attacks  the  decency  of  her  ministers,  in 
sults  religion  herself,  and  degrades  the  worship 
of  the  Almighty;  it  is  because  a  Priest,  should, 
in  every  place,  appear,  what  he  really  is,  and 
because  he  cannot  put  off  the  exterior  of  the 
priesthood,  without  criminal  contempt,  and  with 
out  casting-  away  its  dignity  and  its  spirit ;  it  is 
because  tlie  clerical  habit  teaches  the  people  to 
respect  the  minister,  and  the  minister  to  respect 
his  character;  it  is  because  h.is  dress  acts,  as  a 
monitor  perpetually  present,  to  restrain  him  and 
to  make  him  blush,  should  he  permit  in  himself 
any  thing,  unsuited  to  the  gravity  which  it  be 
speaks  ;  it  is,  in  fine,  because  the  clerical  habit, 
is  the  uniform  of  the  sacred  host,  the  badge 
which  unites  and  honours  them ;  and  thai  to 
be  ashamed  of  it,  and  fling  it  away,  is,  to  be 
come  a  deserter,  a  runaway,  and  to  declare  our 
selves  unworthy  to  wear  it.  Alas!  my  brethren, 
men  of  every  other  state  take  a  pride  a.id  an 
honor  in  bearing  the  external  marks  of  their 
profession:  the  .prince,  the  noble, , the  man  of 
war,  the  magistrate,  all  are  eager  to  display  be 
fore  the  eyes  of  the  public,  those  marks  which 
distinguish  them  from  the  rest  of  society.  The 
religious  orders  regard  it  as  an  essential  duty, 
never  to  lay  aside  the  habit,  which  their  found- 


488 


ON    THE    MODESTY 


ers  have  prescribed  :  they  glory  in  it,  and  re 
spect  even  its  minutest  peculiarities,  and  lie  who 
would  show  himself  in  public,,  under  a  different 
garb,  would  be  regarded  as  an  apostate,  and 
treated  as  the  opprobrium  of  his  brethren.  The 
founders  of  those  institutes,  were,  indeed,  men 
of  rare  and  exemplary  piety,  but  yet  they  were 
private  individuals,  whose  laws  seem  to  derive 
their  force,  from  the  free  acceptation  of  those, 
who  have  voluntarily  submitted  to  them,  and  vow 
ed  their  observance.  And  for  us,  my  brethren,  it 
is  the  church  at  large,  it  is  her  rules  and  her  ca 
nons,  that  prescribe  to  us  the  form  of  the  clerical 
habit :  it  is  not  a  question  of  the  practices  of 
piety  peculiar  to  one  community,  but  of  the  laws 
which  the  church  imposes  on  every  clerick  :  what 
can  be  more  important,  or  more  worthy  of  the 
most  rigid,  and  the  most  religious  observance? 
Yet,  my  brethren,  whilst  men  of  every  other 
profession,  take  a  pride  in  the  marks,  by  which 
they  are  distinguished  from  the  community 
whilst  the  pious  friar  would  deem  it  a  sacri 
lege  and  an  apostacy,  to  put  off  the  dress  which 
his  rule  prescribes ;  we  regard  the  obligation  of 
wect"ir«g  the  clerical  habit,  an  obligation  enjoin 
ed  by  all  the  laws,  ancient  and  modern,  of  the 
church,  as  an  idle  scruple  ;  and  we  distinguish 


OF   THE    CLERGY.  489 

ourselves  from  every  other  rank  of  men,  by  the 
contempt  in  which  we  hold  the  external  marks 
which  bespeak  our  state,  the  most  excellent, 
most  sublime,  and  most  honourable  of  all. 

It  would  seem  that  the  honor  which  the  church 
has  conferred  on  us,  by   associating-  us  to  the 
number  of  her  ministers,   is  burdensome  to  us; 
\ve  retrench  its  most  striking  and  most  respect 
able  ornament,  and  conceive  a  higher  opinion 
of  ourselves,  when   we  appear  in  a  garb,  that 
less  attracts  the   respect  and  veneration   of  the 
faithful.     Yes,  my  brethren,  there   are  Priests 
to  be  seen,  who  scarce  preserve,  any  longer,  up 
on  their  person,  any  vestige  of  the  form,  or  the 
colour  of  the  ecclesiastical  habit ;   who  exhibit 
themselves  in  public,  in  companies,  and  in  towns 
as  men  of  the  world,  and  who  with   the  dress, 
assume  all  the   manners,    of   worldlings  :    they 
are  seen  to  glory  in  the  insult  which  they  oiler 
to  their  state  and  to  the  laws  of  the  church,  and 
regard  as  narrowminded,  and  ignorant,  all,  who 
have    not    courage  to   imitate    their  degenerate 
and  scandalous  conduct :  there  are  others  to  be 
seen,  who,  whilst  they  preserve  the  form  of  the 
ecclesiastical  habit,  display  in  their  dress  a  de 
gree  of  luxury,  of  splendor,  and  of  costliness, 
as  much  opposed  to  sacerdotal  modesty,  as  the 


490 


ON    THE    MODESTY 


exterior  of  those  whose  habit  is  al tog-ether  secu 
lar.    In  fine,,   there  are  some,  who  falling  into 
the  opposite  extreme,  dishonour  the  priesthood 
by  a  sordidness,  by  an  exterior  so  unseemly,  so 
squalid,  so  unbecoming,  that  they  are  scarcely  to 
be  distinguished  from  those  objects  which  soli 
cit  our  charity  on  the  highways  or  in  the  streets. 
In  the  retired  parts  of  the  country,  these  spec 
tacles,  so  disgraceful  to  the  dignity  of  our  cha 
racter,  are  but  too   often  to  be   met;    Priests, 
who,  from  the  vilest  avarice,  or  from  baseness 
of  mind,  clothe  themselves  in  coarseness  or  iu 
rags,  and  thus  expose  their  person,  and  their  of 
fice  to  public  derision  and  contempt.    The  rules 
of  the  church,  my  brethren,  preserve  a  just  me 
dium  ;   they  banish  alike  despicable  sordidness 
and  the  affectation  of  worldliness  and  refinement: 
they  prescribe  a  modest  decency,  a  noble  simpli 
city,  a  dignified  gravity;  an  exterior  in  which 
there  is  nothing  remarkable  ;  in  which  the  dress 
is  forgotten,  in  considering  the  person,  and   iu 
which  nothing  strikes  in  the  habit,  but  the  sanc 
tity  of  him  who  wears  it.     What  is  here  incon- 
testible,  is,  that  he,  who,  without  scruple,  puts 
off  the  exterior  of  his  profession,  has  long  since 
put  away  its  spirit  and  its  piety;  that  the  de 
cency  of  the  clerical  habit,  is  embarrassing  and 


OF  THE   CLERGY.  491 

burdensome  to  him,  only  because  it  would  be 
incommodious  to  him  in  the  uncle-deal  occupa 
tions  in  which  he  is  engaged,,  or  in  the  profane 
assemblies  which  he  frequents  ;  that  living1  in 
the  world,,  and  like  the  world,  and  wishing  to 
share  in  all  its  pleasures,  a  grave  and  becoming 
exterior,  would  indicate  too  strongly,  that  he  is 
not  in  his  proper  place  ;  and  that  a  minister, 
who  wishes  to  permit  himself  only  such  engage 
ments  as  are  conformable  to  his  state,  never 
feels  himself  straightened  by  bearing  on  his  per 
son,  the  marks  of  his  profession.  If  our  morals, 
my  brethren,  were  as  grave  and  as  sacerdotal 
as  they  ought  to  be,  if  our  functions  were  eve 
ry  day,  our  sole  occupation,  if  our"  people  were 
so  dear  to  us,  that  we  could  not  lose  sight  of 
them  without  regret,  if  after  having  given  a 
few  hasty  hours  to  their  concerns,  we  did  not 
go  elsewhere  in  search  of  amusement  to  relieve 
the  tedium  of  living  amongst  them  ;  if  we  loved 
to  live  amidst  the  flock,  which  the  church  con 
fides  to  us,  to  tend,  to  guide,  to  assist  and  to 
serve  it,  the  habit  and  exterior  of  a  pastor  would 
not  be  disgustful  and  burdensome  to  us :  never 
departing  from  the  duties,  we  should  never  think 
of  casting  aside  the  honourable  marks,  of  our 
profession. 


492 


ON    THE    MODESTY 


THIRD    REFLECTION. 

The  last  reflection  which  I  shall  make  on  the 
subject  of  sacerdotal  modesty,  is,  that  a  certain, 
decorum,  a  reserve,  and  seriousness,  suitable  to 
the  sanctity  of  the  priesthood,  should  pervade 
our  very  amusements.  I  am  aware  that  the 
mind  and  body  have  need  of  relaxation;  but  the 
moments  spent  in  restoring  the  exhausted  pow 
ers  of  nature,  are  lawful  and  salutary,  only  in 
proportion  as  they  dispose  us  for  the  perform 
ance,  and  facilitate  the  practice,  of  our  duties. 
Repose  is  allowed  only  that  we  may  gather  new 
strength  to  continue  our  course :  all  those  re 
creations  which  discourage  and  retard  us,  which 
estrange  us  from  labor)  and  fill  us  with  disgust 
for  our  functions,  are  forbidden  by  the  church, 
as  unbecoming  or  criminal  :  hence  the  chace, 
habitual  gaming,  long  entertainments,  danger- 
ous  or  suspected  company,  are  rigorously  in 
terdicted,  by  the  rules  which  the  church  has 
established  for  the  maintenance  of  clerical  mo 
desty  :  these  are  not  the  amusements  in  which 
the  laborious  pastor  may  legitimately  indulge, 
they  are  unseemly  occupations,  which  disho 
nour  the  ministry,  whilst  they  render  it  ineffi 
cient.  For,  my  brethren,  besides  the  immodesty 


OF    THE    CLERGY.  493 

inseparable  from  an  avocation  so  indecorous  in 
a  Priest,  as  the  chace,  is  it  an  exercise  suited  to 
the  meekness  and  gravity  of  our  profession  ? 
does  a  Priest  with  arms  in  his  hands,  breathing 
only  blood  and  carnage,  represent  the  divine 
pastor,  peaceably  conducting  his  flock,  or  ra 
ther  may  he  not  be  likened  to  the  ravening  wolf 
prepared  to  ravage  and  destroy  ?  The  arms  of 
our  warfare,  says  Saint  Paul,  are  spiritual,  des 
tined  to  combat  pride,  avarice,  and  voluptuous 
ness,  and  to  level  every  height  that  exalteth  it 
self  against  the  knowledge  of  God  :  faith  is  the 
buckler,  zeal  for  the  salvation  of  souls,  the 
sword,  which  the  church  puts  into  our  hands, 
when  she  associates  us  to  her  priesthood.  Now, 
what  an  indecency  that  a  Priest  and  a  pastor 
should  fling  away  those  holy  arms,  and  assume 
in  their  stead,  the  deadly  arms  of  worldly  war 
fare  !  He  neglects  his  flock  ;  he  disdains  to  go 
to  the  assistance  of  the  sheep*  that  are  perish 
ing,  yet  he  runs  like  a  madman  after  worthless 
animals,  he  attaches  himself  to  the  pursuit  of  a 
vile  prey,  and  he  despises  the  holy  prey  of  a 
soul,  which  he  might  snatch  from  the  power  of 
the  devil  and  secure  to  Jesus  Christ.  But  on 
quitting  so  clamorous,  and  tumultuous  an  ex 
ercise,  is  he.,  any  longer  in  a  condition  to  collect 


ON    THE    MODESTY 

himself  at  the  foot  of  the  altar,  to  immofotc  the 
victim  of  peace  and  propitiation,  to  offer  up 
the  mystic  blood  of  the  lamb,  and  raise  his  pure 
hands  to  heaven,  hands  which  he  has  so  often 
stained  b;  the  effusion  of  profane  blood?  do  not 
the  recollection,  the  gravity,  the  awe,  the  holy 
fervor  necessary  for  his  functions,  suffer,  from 
the  wild  dissipation  in  which  he  is  accustomed  to 
indulge?  does  not  he  bear  to  the  very  altar,  in 
to  the  venerable  stillness  of  the  sanctuary  itself, 
the  fierce  and  martial  air  of  that  character  which 
he  has  just  laid  aside?  What  veneration  can  the 
people  feel  towards  a  pastor,  whom  they  see 
holding  in  his  hands  the  sign  and  the  pledge 
of  salvation,  the  bread  of  life,  the  sacrament  of 
peace  and  reconciliation,  mysteries  on  which 
the  Angels  look  with  terror,  and  which  the 
most  collected  piety  cannot  approach  with  suf 
ficient  reverence,  after  having  seen,  but  a  mo 
ment  before,  those  hands  destined  to  functions 
so  divine,  managing  the  weapon  of  death,  and 
dealing  fright  and  destruction  on  unoffending 
animals  ? 

What  has  been  said  of  the  chace,  may  be 
well  applied  to  habitual  gaming.  A  Priest 
who  is  a  professed  gamester,  is  a  kind  of  op- 


OF   THE    CLERGY.  49I> 

probrium  in  the  church.  He  wastes  in  ga 
ining,  a  time  that  was  destined  to  save  and  to 
sanctify  his  people;  he  squanders  money  that  is 
not  his,  and  that  belongs  to  the  poor,  when  it 
is  not  necessary  for  his  own  wants :  he  loses  by 
k  the  relish  of  every  thing  that  is  holy  and  se 
rious  in  his  profession  ;  he  loses  his  soul  by  the 
passions  inseparable  from  the  chances  of  play  ; 
lie  forfeits  the  respect  and  the  confidence  of 
his  people,  the  peace  and  tranquillity  of  his  own 
mind ;  nay,  what  does  he  not  forfeit,  since  he 
loses,  at  the  gaming  table,  the  spirit  of  his  vo 
cation,  and  blasts  the  fruit  of  his  entire  minis 
try  ?  These  are  losses  that  are  always  certain, 
that  can  never  be  repaired,  and  that  are  a  thou 
sand  times  more  to  be  lamented  than  the  sums 
that  may  be  lost  by  the  gaming  pastor. 

As  for  you,  my  brethren,  permit  me  to  con 
clude  this  discourse  in  the  words  of  the  Apostle, 
as  for  you,  I  say,  who  are  my  glory,  and  my  con 
solation,  it  is  not  thus  you  dishonour  your  minis 
try;  it  is  not  thus  that  you  convert,  into  a  scan 
dal  for  your  people,  the  sacred  character  which 
you  have  received  from  Jesus  Christ  for  their 
salvation ;  such  are  not  the  maxims  which  he 
has  engraven  on  your  hearts,  and  in  which. 


49(> 


ON    THE    MODESTV 


you  have  been  nurtured,   in  the  places  of  your 
education  :    Vos  autem  non  ita  didicistis   Chris 
tum.*      Continue    then,    my  brethren,    to   con 
duct  yourselves  before  your  people,  in  a  man 
ner  worthy  of  the  gravity  and  the  holiness  of 
your  vocation.    l"ldete  itaque,  fratrcs,  quomodo 
caulc  ambulctfs,  non  quasi  insipientes  sed  ut  sa- 
plcnlcs  ....  quoniam  dies  mail  sunt.j-     Your  re 
serve  and  circumspection,  in  every  part  of  your 
conduct,  cannot  be  too  great :  all  that  is  lawful 
for  you,  is  not  always  expedient:  remember  that 
the  people  by  whom  you  are  surrounded,  are  as 
so   many  censors,  whose  eyes  are  upon  you,  to 
pardon  you  nothing*,  and   who  are  much  more 
inclined  to  exaggerate  the  slightest  dissipation 
into  crime,  than  to  excuse  it  as  a  necessary  re 
creation.      \Ve  are  cast  upon   those  times,    in 
which  the    languishing  faith  of  Christians,    the 
scandals  so  frequently  exhibited   by   unfaithful 
ministers,   and  the  licentiousness  of  public  mo 
rals,  leave  us  no  other  means  of  escaping  the  ma 
lignity  of  suspicion,    and  the  contempt  of  the 
people,  than  a  well  regulated,  severe  and  priest 
ly  life  ;   than  a  true  piety,  a  respectable  gravity, 
a  becoming  modesty,  in  the  entire  detail  of  our 

*Ephes.  c.  iv.  v.  20.        fldera.  c.  v.   vv.  15.  16. 


OF   THE   CLERGY.  497 

conduct :  Videte  quomodo  caute  ambuletis  .... 
quoniam  dies  mail  sunt.  Irreligion  lias  so  far 
prevailed,  that  the  world  is  delighted  to  find  a 
guilty  Priest  :  it  seems  a  triumph  for  it,  when 
it  can  persuade  itself,  that  we  trample  the  du 
ties  of  our  state  under  foot.  Videte  quomodo 
caute  ambuletis  ....  quoniam  dies  mali  sunt :  it 
perceives  not,  that  the  disorders  of  the  minis 
ters  of  religion,  when  they  really  exist,  are  the 
most  terrible  scourge  by  which  God  punishes 
the  crimes  of  a  people  :  their  pastors  are  re 
sources,  which  he  renders  useless  in  their  re 
gard:  they  are  voices  which  he  renders  silent, 
and  which  ought  to  have  called  them  aloud  to 
sorrow  and  penance;  they  are  mediators  who 
ought  to  have  reconciled  them  with  God,  and 
appeased  that  justice  which  their  sins  had  pro 
voked,  arid  who  are  now  become  unprofitable, 
without  influence  in  heaven,  or  respect  on  earth. 
Let  us  not,  my  brethren,  increase  the  blind 
ness  of  the  world,  in  confirming  its  errors  by 
our  example:  Videte  quomodo  caute  ambuletis 
quoniam  dies  mali  sunt.  Let  us  not  be 
come  stones  of  stumbling  to  the  people  of 
whom  we  ought  to  be  the  guides,  in  the  ways 
of  salvation  ;  nor  be  ourselves  the  most  grie 
vous  sore  that  disgraces  and  afflicts  the  church; 

2  i 


498  ON  THE   MODESTY,   &C. 

we,  whom  she  honours  with  her  choice,  her 
authority,  and  her  confidence,  that  we  may  Ixj 
the  guardians  of  her  peace,  the  dispensers  of 
her  treasures,  the  depositaries  of  her  secrets, 
her  mysteries  and  her  truths. — Anien. 


A  DISCOURSE 

ON 

THE  JUBILEE. 


Pcenitemini  igitur,   et  convertimini,   ut  deleantur 
peccata  vestra. 

Repent  therefore,  and  be  converted r,  that  your  sins 
may  be  blotted  out. 

ACTS.  chap.  iii.  ver.  19. 


THESE  are  the  words  of  Saint  Peter  to  the 
Jews,  after  the  cure  of  the  lame  man,  who  sat 
begging  alms  at  the  gate  of  the  temple  :  they 
were  addressed  to  the  multitude  whom  the  mira 
cle  had  collected,  and  who  were  overwhelmed 
with  anguish  and  bathed  in  tears,  when  the 
Apostle  reproached  them  with  the  blood,  which 
they  had  impiously  shed,  and  unfolded  to  their 
view  the  black  enormity  of  the  crime,  which 
they  had  recently  perpetrated.  There  yet  re- 


500  ON    THE   JUBILEE. 

mains  for  you,  one  resource,  my  brethren.,  said 
this  first  dispenser  of  the  favors  of  the  church  ; 
your  iniquities  have  filled  up  the  measure  of 
your  fathers;  you  have  rejected  the  gift  of  the 
Most  High,  and  have  separated  yourselves  as 
so  many  anathemas  from  the  hope  of  Israel  : 
the  Lord  now  casts  a  look  of  mercy  towards 
you  ;  he  is  about  to  pour  out  of  his  spirit  up 
on  all  flesh,  upon  his  enemies  as  well  as  upon 
his  servants ;  upon  the  workers  of  iniquity,  as 
well  as  upon  the  souls  of  the  just:  heaven  is 
about  to  open  and  send  down  its  influence  up 
on  the  earth  ;  and  in  fine,  prodigies  of  grace 
and  of  mercy  are  about  to  sanctify  the  whole 
universe  :  Dabo  prodigia  in  Ccelo  sursum,  ct 
nigna  in  Terra  dcorsum*  Profit  then,  of  this 
time  of  visitation  and  of  mercy,  to  present  your 
selves  with  contrite  and  humble  hearts,  for  the 
indulgence  and  forgiveness,  which  the  bounty 
of  the  Lord  now  proffers;  and  prepare  your 
souls  by  the  afflictions  of  a  salutary  penance, 
for  the  abundant  graces  which  we  are  now  go 
ing  to  administer  :  Pcenilcmini  igitur,  ct  conver- 
timini,  ut  ddeanlur  pcccata  vestra. 

And  such,   my  brethren,  is  our  language  to 
you,  this  day,  in  circumstances  almost  altoge- 

*  Acts.  c.  ii.  v.  12. 


ON   THE   JUBILEE,  •      501 

ther  similar.  You  have  had  the  misfortune  of 
forgetting  God,  of  violating  his  holy  law,  of  cru 
cifying-  Jesus  Christ  anew  in  your  body,  by 
rendering  your  members  subservient  to  crimi 
nal  passions;  but  behold  now  a  time  of  pardon 
and  of  reconciliation,  in  which  all  the  graces 
of  the  church,  come  forth,  as  it  were,  to  meet 
you  :  the  gift  of  God,  and  the  effusion  of  his 
Holy  Spirit,  are  about  to  sanctify  all  flesh ;  for 
giveness  is  now  offered  to  every  sinner ;  the 
church,  touched  by  your  miseries,  opens  her 
treasures,  that  she,  herself,  may  pay  the  price  of 
your  deliverance  :  enter  into  the  views  of  her 
mercy  towards  you ;  detest  those  crimes  which 
have  put  you  in  the  necessity  of  recurring1  to  her 
indulgence ;  and  rend  your  hearts*  in  true  re 
pentance,  which  alone  can  render  her  bounty  ser 
viceable  to  you  :  the  more  she  appears  to  relax 
her  just  rigor,  in  your  regard,  the  more  sensibly 
should  you  feel  your  own  wretchedness,  and 
the  more  firmly  should  you  resolve  to  corres 
pond  with  her  kindness,  and  not  turn  her  very 
favors  into  a  motive  of  impenitence:  P^nite- 
mini  igitur,  et  confer  timing  ut  deleanlur  peccata 
vestra. 

*  Scindite  corda  vestra. — Joel.  c.  ii.  v.  13. 


502  ON   THE   JUBILEE. 

In  effect,  the  graces  which  the  church  is  about 
to  pour  out  on  all  the  faithful,  during  these 
days  of  mercy,  are  not  granted  to  spare  our 
weakness,  but  to  make  up  for  its  deficiency ; 
not  to  dispense  us  from  penance,  but  to  aid 
us  in  its  performance;  not  to  diminish,  but  to 
reward,  our  compunction :  let  me  then  entreat 
you  to  observe,  that  they  are  but  supplementary 
to  our  weakness,  helps  to  penance,  rewards  of 
compunction.  Let  us  develope  those  capital  and 
important  truths. 

FIRST    REFLECTION. 

I  say,  first,  that  they  are  supplementary  to 
our  weakness :  for  it  is  an  established  truth,  that 
man,  by  sin,  becomes  a  debtor  to  the  divine 
justice,  and  that  he  cannot  be  reconciled  with 
God,  except  by  undergoing  the  punishment  due 
to  his  transgression.  Every  sin  must  be  punish 
ed,  in  order  to  be  pardoned  ;  but  as  the  entire 
life  of  a  sinner,  who  has  forgotten  his  God, 
should  be  a  continual  penance  ;  as  all  the  crea 
tures  which  have  ministered  to  his  passions, 
should  be  turned  into  instruments  of  his  chas 
tisement  ;  as  all  pleasures  are  interdicted  him  ; 
as  it  is  only  through  favor  that  he  can  enjoy 
even  those  gratifications,  which  are  allowed  to 


ON  THE  JUBILEE.  503 

innocence;    as    his   body   which    has   hitherto 
served  unto  sin,  should  hereafter  serve  but  unto 
penance;  and  as  his  weakness  oftentimes  pre 
vents  him  from  finishing  this  long  and  toilsome 
course,  and  from  repairing,  by  proportionate  sa 
tisfaction,  the  enormity  and  inveteracy   of  his 
transgressions,  the  church,  ever  attentive  to  the 
wants  of  her  children,  gives  them  her  hand,  as 
it  were,  to  support  them,  in  the  path  of  salva 
tion,  lest  the  ruggedness  of  the  journey  should 
overcome  their  resolution,  and  turn  their  steps 
from  the  road  of  life.     She  offers  to  the  justice 
of  God,  the  treasures  of  which  she  is  the  depo 
sitary,  and  thus  buys  off  a  part  of  the  male 
dictions  to  which  the  sinner  had  been  condemn 
ed  :  she  takes  out  of  the  superabundant  merits 
of  Christ  and  of  his  Saints,  what  is  wanting  in 
the  deficient  works  of  the  weak  and  incapable 
penitent;  and  becoming  all  to  all,  in  order  to 
save  all,  she  makes  up  for  the  weakness  of  the 
sinner  by   her  indulgence,    rather   than  over 
whelm  him,  or  cast  him  into  despair,  by  enfor 
cing  the  severe  penalties  of  rigid  justice. 

The  favors  of  the  church,  then,  my  brethren, 
are  but  supplementary,  to  your  weakness.  If 
your  powers  correspond  to  your  crimes;  if 
your  body  is  capable  of  penance  as  it  has  been 


OK   THE   JUBILEE. 

of  sin  ;  if  your  members  can  serve  unto  just'ce 
as  they  have  served  unto  iniquity ;  if  you  pos 
sess  wherewith  to  satisfy  the  demands  of  an 
angry  God,  and  yet  criminally  refuse  to  dis 
charge  them ;  undeceive  yourselves,,  my  bre 
thren,  the  church  has  no  intention  of  paying 
your  debts,  nor  of  according  to  your  degene 
racy,  favors  which  are  destined  for  the  fervent 
alone,  nor  of  bestowing  upon  your  abundance, 
sacred  riches,  which  are  designed  only  for  the 
relief  of  the  indigent  and  the  necessitous.  Her 
indulgences  are  a  sacred  alms,  and  to  have  a 
right  to  share  in  them,  we  must  be  poor,  fer 
vent,  and  in  want:  they  are  like  the  manna 
which  was  of  old,  sent  down  from  heaven;  if 
you  gather  it  for  the  purpose  of  making  a  hoard 
to  indulge  your  sloth,  and  spare  yourself  the 
labor  of  collecting  it  day  by  day,  it  will  be  con 
verted  into  worms  and  putrefaction;  and  the 
bounty  of  heaven  will  become,  in  your  regard, 
an  odor  of  death,  and  a  punishment  rather  than 
a  benefit. 

And  when  I  say,  my  brethren,  that  it  is  our 
weakness  alone  that  induces  the  church  to  com 
plete  our  satisfaction  out  of  the  abundance  of 
her  treasures,  I  do  not  mean  by  weakness,  that 
criminal  effeminacy,  which  renders  all  mortifi- 


ON   THE   JUBILEE.  505 

cation  intolerable  and  impossible  to  us;  that 
sensual  faintheartedness,,  which  makes  us  trem 
ble  at  the  very  name  of  austerity  or  suffering; 
that  excessive  attention  to  ourselves,  which 
makes  us  imagine,,  that  every  thing  that  thwarts 
our  cupidity,  is  injurious  to  our  health  ;  that 
habit  of  self-love,,  which  changes  every  thing 
that  is  commodious  or  agreeable  into  a  neces 
sity  :  those  are  so  many  motives  to  penance,  and 
not  titles  to  indulgence.  I  do  not  mean  a  vain 
regard  to  rank  or  to  birth,  by  which  we  per 
suade  ourselves,  that  in  public  and  elevated  in 
dividuals.,  the  obligations  of  the  Christian  and  the 
sinner,,  are  diminished ;  as  if  the  duties  of  any 
state  were  incompatible  with  those  of  the  gos 
pel,  or  that  an  elevation  which  has  been  itself, 
so  often  an  occasion  of  crime,  could  exempt  us 
from  a  penance  which  it  renders  but  the  more 
necessary  and  the  more  imperative. 

I  understand  a  real  inability  to  support  the 
length  and  rigor  of  penalties  conformable  to 
the  rules  and  the  spirit  of  the  church ;  and  I 
say,  that  in  such  case,  the  church,  touched  by 
the  miseries  of  our  state,  by  the  eagerness  which 
we  ourselves  feel,  to  expiate  our  crimes  were 
our  strength  eqiial  to  our  zeal,  and  taking  the 
desire  for  the  deed,  relents  from  her  just  seve- 


1)06 


OS   THE   JUBILEE. 


rity,  and  proffers  to  us  the  boon  of  her  reconci 
liation  and  favor. 

But  do  not  imagine,  my  brethren,  that  even 
then,  the  church  undertakes  to  supply  every 
thing.  She  expects,  thai  if  we  cannot  offer  the 
full  atonement  of  our  sins,  we  will  offer  at  least, 
a  part;  she  means  that  we  should  draw  all  we 
can  from  our  weakness,  and  give  according  to 
our  ability,  and,  if  I  may  so  speak,  even  beyond 
it:  her  intention  is,  that  we  shall  employ  all 
our  efforts  to  satisfy  the  divine  justice ;  that  our 
whole  life  be  a  continual  remembrance  of  our 
iniquities,  and  of  tlve  reparation  to  which  they 
have  condemned  us;  that  all  our  actions  exhibit 
some  sign  of  our  penitent  condition,  and  that 
even  our  very  pleasures  be  seasoned  with  the 
bitterness  of  penance. 

For  whatever  may  be  our  weakness,  if  we  are 
sincerely  tonclved  and  converted;  if  the  spirit  of 
God  has  produced  in  our  hearts  the  grace  of 
compunction  and  of  penance  ;  if  the  abhorrence 
of  our  past  crimes  lias  operated  in  us,  those  sen 
timents  of  zeal  and  of  indignation  against  our 
selves,  which  are  the  first  fruit  of  repentance  ; 
ah !  we  shall  still,  readily  find  in  ourselves, 
wherewith  to  offer  to  God,  sacrifices  and  ex 
piations  to  appease  his  justice  :  whatever  may 


ON  THE  JUBILEE.  507 

be  our  weakness,  we  shall  always  have  incli 
nations  to  mortify ;  desires  to  overcome ;  plea 
sures  to  sacrifice ;  humiliations  to  suffer ;  con 
tradictions  to  support;  superfluities  to  retrench: 
whatever  may  be  our  weakness,  we  shall  be 
still  strong1  enough,  to  bear  the  denial  of  a 
thousand  useless  indulgences  to  our  senses ;  to 
cross  our  appetites  in  a  thousand  ways,  which, 
without  lessening  our  strength,  will  weaken  our 
corruption,  and  thus  make  of  our  very  infirmi 
ties  the  matter  of  our  penance.  Alas  !  how  far 
do  we  not  go  for  the  world,  for  wealth,  for 
pleasure?  we  wring  from  a  feeble  and  ruined 
constitution,  all  the  efforts  of  which  it  is  capa 
ble,  and  even  more ;  we  do  ourselves  violence  ; 
we  forego  repose,  we  stifle  the  calls  of  exhausted 
nature,  and  imagine  that  by  continually  gaining 
on  ourselves,  we  shall  in  the  end,  accustom  our 
body  to  obey  our  wishes  :  ah !  my  brethren,  it 
is  for  heaven  alone,  that  we  attempt  nothing-, 
that  we  nicely  balance  our  strength,  that  we 
exaggerate  our  weakness,  and  that  every  thing 
that  is  attended  with  pain,  appears  to  us  im 
possible. 

And  do  not  tell  me  that  the  favors  of  the 
church  would  be  unnecessary  and  useless,  if 
on  our  part,  we  were  still  obliged  to  use  all 


ON    THE   JUBILEE. 


our  efforts,  to  expiate  our  sins  by  the  labors  of 
penance.  For,  my  brethren,  however  great  our 
efforts,  however  long  our  penance,  however  ri 
gorous  our  satisfactions,  they  will  never  be  pro 
portionate  to  our  crimes :  our  sufferings  will 

o 

be  always  short  of  our  sins;  we  shall  always 
remain  far  distant  from  the  point,  which  the 
justice  of  God  requires  of  us  to  attain  ;  we 
shall  be  ever  like  the  useless  servant  mentioned 
in  the  gospel,  obliged  to  beg  time  and  loaded 
with  a  multitude  of  debts,  which  we  liave  not 
been  yet  able  to  discharge. 

For,  alas!  my  brethren,  can  we  believe  that 
the  tears  of  a  few  short  days,  that  some  slight 
^elf-denials,  that  a  few  easy  fasts,  expiate  and  ef 
face  before  God,  crimes  which  have  deserved  an 
eternity  of  torments  ?  Do  we  believe  that  ever 
lasting  flames,  that  eternal  despair,  that  the 
worm  which  never  dies,  that  separation  for 
ever  from  God;  do  we  believe  that  this  fright 
ful  and  terrific  sentence,  which  we  have  incur 
red,  can  be  commuted  for  some  momentary 
austerities,  and  that  a  debt  so  immense  can  be 
paid  off,  as  it  were,  with  a  farthing?  Formerly, 
the  church  herself,  more  indulgent  certainly 
than  the  insulted  and  terrible  Lord  of  all,  since 
her  only  concern  was  to  appease  the  sovereign 


ON   THE   JUBILEE.  509 

Judge  and  mitigate,  by  her  canonical  austerities 
the  severity  of  his  sentence,  and  since  the  pu 
nishments  which  she  inflicted  on  her  children, 
were  those  of  a  tender  mother ;  the  church  her 
self,  for  a  single  crime,  imposed  formerly  whole 
years  of  labors  and  penance :  and  what  penance, 
my  brethren!  floods  of  tears,  continual  fasts, 
public  humiliations,  astonishing  austerities,  long 
and  frequent  prayers,  separation  from  the  altar, 
from  the  society  of  the  faithful,  and  from  every 
pleasure  :  what  penalties  then,  will  not  the  di 
vine  justice  exact  here  on  earth,  of  the  impure 
and  criminal  soul?  if  the  chastisements  of  a 
tender  and  compassionate  mother  appear  to  us 
so  rigorous,  what  must  be  the  severity  of  an 
offended  and  angry  God  ? 

I  repeat  it,  then,  my  brethren,  that  whatever 
may  be  your  penance,  you  will  ever  remain  in 
finitely  indebted  to  the  divine  justice:  however 
zealous  may  be  your  penance,  you  will  then 
always  need  the  favor  and  the  assistance  of  the 
church :  it  is  necessary  that  her  succours  come 
to  the  aid  of  your  weakness,  and  that  she  of 
fer  to  God,  the  merits  of  Christ  and  of  his 
Saints,  to  supply  the  deficiency  of  yours.  There 
fore,  my  brethren,  whilst  on  your  part,  you 
employ  every  effort  to  satisfy  the  justice  of  God, 


510  ON   THE  JUBILEE. 

the  favors  of  the  church  in  those  days  of  mercy 
and  penance,  will  nevertheless  be  to  you  of 
infinite  advantage :  you  will  find  in  them  where 
with  to  make  that  adequate  reparation,  which 
you  yourself  would  otherwise  never  have  been 
able  to  offer:  by  the  abundance  of  the  merits 
which  she  applies  to  you,  she  closes  the  im 
mense  chasm  which  your  sins  had  placed  be 
tween  God  and  you,  and  which  ages  of  penance, 
were  you  to  live  them,  would  not  of  themselves, 
have  been  able  to  fill  up. 

So,  my  brethren,  nothing  can  be  more  op 
posed  to  the  spirit  of  faith  and  of  sound  doc 
trine,  than  that  false  science,  by  which  some 
would  persuade  themselves  that  at  bottom,  the 
favors  of  the  church  are  of  little  value;  that 
they  neither  lighten  our  burdens  nor  better  our 
condition;  and  that  a  sinner  truly  penitent,  is, 
in  the  eyes  of  God,  as  agreeable  without  them, 
as  by  their  participation  :  this  is  an  error  as  in 
jurious  to  the  blood  of  Christ,  as  it  is  disconso 
late  for  the  weakness  of  the  faithful,  and  one 
which  the  church  has  more  than  once  struck 
with  her  anathemas.  The  church  does  not  in* 
deed  pretend  to  dispense  us  from  penance,  for 
the  gospel  declares  that  without  penance  there 
is  for  us,  no  salvation ;  and  the  unchangeable 


ON  THE  JUBILEE. 

order  of  divine  justice,  which  sin  has  disturbed, 
cannot  be  restored,  except  by  the  punishment 
due  to  the  transgressor :  but  considering  that 
either  our  weakness  disqualifies  us  for  the  per 
formance  of  almost  all  the  arduous  exercises, 
which  she  formerly  imposed  upon  sinners,  or 
that  such  as  that  weakness  will  allow  us  to  ac 
complish,  can  never  correspond  with  the  multi 
tude  and  the  enormity  of  our  crimes,  she  supplies 
what  is  still  wanting  to  our  penance,  out  of  the 
abundance  of  her  treasures.  Like  to  the  pru 
dent  and  charitable  steward  of  the  gospel,  she 
remits  the  half  of  the  debt,  which  we  were  not 
in  a  condition  to  discharge,  and  bids  us  write 
fifty,  where  we  owed  a  hundred  ;  and  it  is  both 
a  departure  from  her  spirit,  and  a  blasphemy 
of  the  gift  of  God,  to  regard  her  favors  either 
as  usekss  to  our  weakness,  or  favourable  to 
our  un repentance. 

SECOND    REFLECTION. 

In  effect,  I  have  said  that  in  the  second  place, 
they  are  helps  to  penance ;  and  this,  my  bre 
thren,  is  the  reason  why  these  days  of  propi 
tiation,  should  be  a  time  of  consolation  to  pe 
nitent  souls.  For  nothing  is  so  distressing  to 
fcuthful  and  pious  souls  as  to  reflect,  ia  review- 


512 


0\    THE   JUBILEE. 


ing-  their  past  transgressions,  before  God,  that 
their  passions  had  been  active,  ardent  and  con 
tinual  ;  that  they  had  pushed  their  pleasures  as 
far  as  the  cravings  of  corruption  could  suggest, 
and  that  their  penance  has  been  weak,  languish 
ing  and  imperfect:  these  recollections  alarm 
and  confound  them  :  the  judgments  of  God,  so 
hidden,  yet  so  terrific;  the  severity  of  his  jus 
tice,  so  different  from  ours;  even  the  example 
of  so  many  holy  penitents,  who,  after  lives  far 
less  criminal  than  ours,  have  crucified  them 
selves,  with  Jesus  Christ,  by  the  most  astonish 
ing  austerities  ;  these  reflections  confound  and 
discourage  them.  They  doubt  of  the  safety  of 
their  state  ;  their  past  penance  appears  but  an 
illusion:  they  lose  the  peace  and  confidence 
which  are  the  support  and  consolation  of  piety, 
and  from  dejection  often  pass  to  the  dangerous 
state  of  inactivity  and  sloth. 

Now  the  church,  in  the  graces  which  she 
grants,  at  this  time,  to  her  children,  offers  a 
remedy  for  the  disquietude  and  doubts  of  faith 
ful  and  penitent  souls,  and  undertakes  to  supply 
the  defect  of  their  penance  ;  for  however  sin 
cere  it  may  have  been,  it  is  almost  impossible 
that  it  has  not  been  mixed  up  with  a  thousand 
imperfections. 


ON   THE   JUBILEE.  513 

I  say,  first,,  that  it  is  imperfect  in  point  of  se 
verity  :  alas  !  our  penance  is  always  mixed  up 
with  a  thousand  self-gratifications,  which  defile 
it.  which  destroy  almost  its  whole  merit;  and 
oftentimes  our  retrenchments  and  self-denials, 
far  from  expiating  our  past  misdeeds,,  hardly 
suffice  to  expiate  even  our  own  present  tepidity 
and  transgressions.  The  church  comes  there 
fore  to  our  assistance  ;  she  fills  up  the  voids 
of  our  penance;  the  multitude  of  our  dissipa 
tions  and  weaknesses,  she  covers  with  the  cha 
rity  and  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ ;  and,  with 
out  regarding  the  defects  of  our  expiations,  she 
readily  accepts  them  with  all  their  imperfections, 
and  supplies  from  her  own  stores,  what  is  want 
ing  in  our  penitential  works. 

Secondly,  in  point  of  activity  and  fervor. 
Yes,  my  brethren,  our  penances  are  always  per 
formed  with  great  languor  and  disrelish  :  far 
from  that  holy  zeal,  which  would  side  with 
God's  justice,  against  ourselves ;  far  from  that- 
indignation  of  penance  which  would  take  up 
arms  against  our  flesh,  which  has  been  the 
source  and  the  occasion  of  all  our  crimes ;  far 
from  taking  vengeance  with  a  holy  eagerness 
on  our  bodies,  for  the  detriment  which  they 
have  caused  to  our  souls ;  far  from  finding  in 

2  K 


514  ON   THE   JUBILEE. 

the  tears  and  macerations  of  penance,  that  de 
light  which  we  once  drew  from  forbidden  plea 
sures ;  alas!  the  slightest  sacrifices  which  we 
make  to  God,  cost  us  so  much ;  we  have  to 
struggle  with  ourselves,  so  long,  for  the  least 
of  them;  we  bring  to  them,  so  much  dislike  and 
repugnance;  we  pay  our  debts  so  unwillingly 
and  so  imperfectly,  that  the  languishing  man 
ner,  in  which  we  attempt  to  appease  the  justice 
of  God  for  our  past  sins,  becomes  itself,  often, 
a  new  crime.  Whatever  we  do  for  God,  wearies 
and  disgusts  us:  the  most  just  themselves,  of 
tentimes  feel  their  heart  take  part  with  the  flesh 
against  the  spirit,  in  the  career  of  penance; 
they  feel  their  compunction  diminished,  horror 
of  their  past  sins  almost  worn  away,  the  re 
membrance  of  the  benefits  of  God,  awaken  their 
gratitude  but  feebly :  nothing  is  more  ordinary 
than  languor  and  decay  of  zeal,  in  the  perform 
ance  of  the  laborious  works  of  penance.  Its 
beginning  is  generally  sincere  and  ardent ;  but 
those  impulses  of  grace  weaken  insensibly ;  the 
objects  of  sense,  by  which  we  are  surrounded, 
blunt  the  edge  of  our  desires  of  salvation  ;  we 
become  less  sensible  of  our  past  miseries :  the 
mind  itself,  naturally  incapable  of  fixing  its  at 
tention  long  on  objects  which  sadden  and  em- 


ON   THE   JUBILEE.  515 

bitter  it,  turns  away,  as  it  were,  in  spite  of  us, 
from  the  painful  contemplation  of  its  transgres 
sions  and  of  their  penalties  ;  and  then  being  no 
longer  sustained  by  a  deep  compunction,  by 
a  lively  gratitude,  by  the  ardent  transports  of 
a  contrite  heart  to  which  nothing  appears  diffi 
cult;  we  slacken  our  pace,  and  drag  ourselves 
slowly  along  in  the  ways  of  penance ;  we  mur 
mur,  like  the  Israelites,*  at  the  length  and  dif 
ficulties  of  the  journey  through  the  dry  and 
barren  wilderness  ;  our  souls  nauseate  the  light 
food,  which  the  Lord  hath  prepared  for  us, 
and  we  regret,  perhaps,  in  secret,  the  flesh-pots 
and  delights  of  the  land  of  Egypt. 

Now,  all  these  secret  repinings,  these  insen 
sible  diminutions  of  faith  and  of  grace,  so  inci 
dent  even  to  the  most  faithful  souls,  lessen  the 
value  and  the  merit  of  our  penance,  before  God. 
He  subtracts  from  our  satisfactions,  whatever 
we  ourselves  abate  from  the  fervor  and  the  love 
with  which  we  ought  to  perform  them  ;  for  he 
regards  not  the  offering  but  the  heart  that  makes 
it ;  and  of  those  works,  which  are  not  animated 
by  the  zeal  of  penance,  he  reckons  but  the  half 
to  our  account.  But  as  those  defects  are  al- 

*  Numbers,  c.  ii.  w.  4.  5. 


516  ON    THE   JUBILEE. 

most  inseparable  from  our  corrupt  and  feeble 
nature,  the  Lord,,  who  is  ever  rich  in  mercy, 
and  who  wills  not  the  perdition,  but  the  salva 
tion,  of  the  sinner,  has  left  to  his  church,  re 
medies  and  resources  for  the  infirmities  and  the 
languors  of  penance  itself:  he  wishes  her  to  ac 
cept  our  imperfect  sacrifices ;  to  close  her  eyes 
to  the  infidelities  by  which  they  have  been  ac 
companied  ;  to  have  more  regard  to  the  sin 
cerity  of  our  intentions  than  to  the  defective- 
ness  of  our  works  ;  to  the  weakness  of  our  na 
ture  than  to  the  imperfection  of  our  faith  ;  and 
to  admit  us  into  the  number  of  those  happy 
penitents,  who  have  terminated  the  expiatory 
course,  which  she  had  appointed  ;  to  restore  us 
to  the  participation  of  her  prayers  and  her  ho 
ly  mysteries,  from  which  we  were  excluded  by 
our  crimes ;  to  re-establish  us  in  all  those  rights 
which  we  had  forfeited  by  sin,  and  out  of  the 
merits  and  the  treasures  of  which  she  is  the  de 
positary,  to  cover  the  stains  of  our  crimes  and 
the  defects  of  our  very  penance. 

Finally,  a  third  sort  of  imperfection  in  our 
penances,  is  almost  always  found  in  our  want 
of  purity  of  intention.  We  are  not,  indeed, 
of  the  number  of  the  hypocrites,  who  do  their 
good  works  only  to  attract  the  notice  and  the 


ON   THE   JUBILEE.  517 

applause  of  the  public ;  who  sound  a  trumpet, 
that  they  may  not  lose  the  merit  and  reward  of 
their  virtue,  before  men ;  who  love  nothing  in 
piety  but  its  pageant  and  reputation.,  and  who 
are,  in  reality,  but  penitents  of  vanity  and  of 
the  world. 

Yet,  however  sincere  our  intentions  may 
otherwise  be,  there  enters  into  all  our  penitential 
labors,  a  great  deal  of  human  complacency:  we 
do  not  act  to  be  seen  by  men;  but  we  are  not 
displeased  that  they  should  see  our  actions :  we 
do  not  propose  to  ourselves,  the  commenda 
tions  of  the  public,  as  the  recompence  of  our 
piety,  but  we  are  not  sorry  that  it  should  be 
applauded:  we  desire  to  please  but  God  alone, 
but  yet  we  do  not  fail  to  set  a  great  value  on 
pleasing  the  world,  in  addition:  our  chief 
thoughts  are  directed  towards  heaven,  but  alas! 
how  many  of  them  are  nevertheless,  turned  to 
wards  the  earth  ?  how  many  interested  views 
to  self?  how  often  do  we  secretly  prefer  works, 
which  cause  us  to  be  admired,  to  those  which 
would  tend  only  to  purify  us  ?  how  much  im 
perceptible  seeking  after  our  own  glory?  how 
much  secret  concern  about  the  opinion  of  men? 
what  singular  practices  of  virtue,  in  which 
we  find  nothing  more  agreeable,  than  the  sin- 


518  ON   THE   JUBILEE. 

gularity  itself,  which  distinguishes  us  from 
others  and  causes  us  to  be  remarked  !  We  often 
fancy  that  it  is  the  love  of  God  that  supports 
us  in  retreat;  in  our  separation  from  the  plea 
sures  and  the  assemblies  of  worldlings  ;  in  our 
retrenchment  of  the  expenses,  and  our  abandon 
ment  of  the  fashionable  indecencies,  authorized 
by  the  world  ;  and  alas !  it  is  but  the  love  of 
ourselves,  and  the  secret  pleasure  of  not  being 
like  to  others  and  of  exciting  the  attention  of 
men,  by  striking  and  singular  actions :  they 
would  probably  please  us  less,  were  every  one 
to  follow  the  same  course  :  we  would  proba 
bly  find  them  disgustful  and  insupportable,  were 
public  example  and  general  practice  to  impose 
them  upon  us  as  so  many  duties :  were  the 
multitude,  by  imitating  our  example  to  confound 
us  with  the  crowd  ;  were  we  unable  to  say  se 
cretly  to  ourselves,  that  we  deny  ourselves  plea 
sures,  in  which  others  indulge  without  scruple, 
and  were  there  not  this  concealed  but  flatter 
ing  comparison  to  sustain  our  self-love,  and  in 
demnify  us  for  the  bitterness  of  virtue,  our  best 
works  of  penance  would  probably  soon  be  aban 
doned. 

Alas  !    my  brethren,  I  repeat  it,  pride  enters 
imperceptibly  into  all  we  do ;  and  in  every  place 


ON    THE   JUBILEE.  519 

and  in  every  action,  we  are  still  the  same.    Now 
this    fatal  leaven   is    sufficient   to   ferment    and 
corrupt   the  whole  mass :  this  fund  of  self-love, 
which   is   found  in  all  our  justice,    infects  and 
defiles  it.      The  God   of  holiness   who  weighs 
our  actions  even  in  our  heart  itself,  finds  them 
always  alloyed  with  this  base  admixture,  which 
deprives   them  of  a  part  of  their  value  and  their 
weight :    in  estimating  them,  he  rigorously  se 
parates  what  is  divine  and  the  product  of  his 
grace,  from  what  is  human  and  properly   our 
own ;  the  work  of  the  Holy  Ghost,   from    the 
work  of  man  ;  the  fruit  of  charity,  from  the  fruit 
of  cupidity ;  and  oftentimes  after  this  severe  ap- 
pretiation,  after  the  chaff  has  been  divided  from 
the  corn,  there  remains  on  the  one  side,  scarce 
a  few  good  grains,  and  on  the  other,  heaps  of 
husks  and  straw,  that  is,  of  works  destined  to 
be  consumed  by  the  fire ;  and  assuredly,  were 
he  to  judge   us  without  mercy,    our  very  jus 
tice  would    furnish    matter  for  our  condemna 
tion.     Behold,  my  brethren,  the  responsibilities 
from  which  we  are  freed,  and  the  defilements 
from  which  we  are  purified,  by  the  graces   of 
the   church.     The  blood  of  Christ,  which   her 
bounty  pours  over  our  penitential  performances, 
renders  them  jtnore  pure  and  more  brilliant:  it 


520 


ON   THE   JUBILEE. 


heals  the  remains  of  those  wounds,  which  even 
the  powerful  remedies  of  ordinary  penance,  had 
left,  as  it  were,  still  half  open  :  it  is  a  sacred 
fire  which  devours  and  consumes  every  thing 
that  is  human  and  unholy,  in  our  sacrifice  ; 
which  refines  the  ore  of  our  charity  and  repen 
tance,  and  converts  into  precious  gold  the  dross 
of  our  infirmities  and  our  miseries. 

Such  is  the  benefit  of  the  graces  of  the  church. 
If  you  are  a  sinner  they  will  support  you  in 
the  toilsome  course  of  your  penance :  if  you 
are  already  a  penitent,  they  will  make  up  for 
your  weakness,  and  supply  the  imperfections 
of  your  austerities;  if  you  are  just,  they  will 
augment  the  merit  of  your  labors ;  if  you  are 
weak,  they  will  be  your  succour  :  if  you  arc 
strong,  they  will  be  the  safeguard  of  your  pow 
ers  :  if  you  are  dejected,  they  will  be  the  support 
and  consolation  of  your  troubles ;  in  a  word, 
whatever  you  may  be,  you  will  find  here,  either 
the  stay  and  security  of  your  virtues,  or  the 
means  and  facility  of  expiating  your  crimes. 

THIRD    REFLECTION. 

It  is  true,  that  nothing  but  profound  sorrow 
for  our  offences,  aod  sincere  and  active  repent 
ance.,  obtain  those  precious  favors,  for  they 


ON   THE   JUBILEE. 

are  the  recompence  of  compunction  alone :  this 
is  the  third  reflection.  In  e fleet,  the  church 
in  the  long'  course  of  penance,  which  in  an 
cient  times,  she  imposed  on  the  faithful,  who 
after  baptism  had  returned  to  the  disorders  of 
their  former  lives,  whenever  she  remitted  a  part 
of  her  canonical  rigors,  had  regard,  says  Saint 
Cyprian,  to  nothing  but  the  sincerity  and  in 
tense  ness  of  the  grief  which  they  manifested 
for  their  sins.  Thus,  when,  among  the  number 
of  public  penitents,  she  found  certain  sinners 
more  touched  and  dejected  than  the  rest,  by 
their  enormities;  more  fervent  in  the  laborious 
exercises  of  penance;  more  penetrated  by  the 
fear  of  God's  judgments;  more  humbled  at  the 
sight  of  their  weakness ;  more  ardent  for  the 
boon  of  reconciliation ;  more  afflicted  at  their 
state  of  abasement,  of  separation  and  anathema; 
in  such  circumstances,  the  church,  imitating  the 
indulgence  of  the  Apostle,  towards  the  incestu 
ous  Corinthian,  lest  the  abundance  and  keenness 
of  their  sorrow  should  too  much  deject  tho^e 
contrite  and  disconsolate  penitents,  abridged  the 
period  of  their  punishments  and  exclusion;  re 
laxed  her  severity ;  proffered  them  the  blessing 
of  peace  and  reconciliation  ;  and  rewarded  the 
tears  and  the  ardor  of  their  grief  by  restoring- 


522  ON   THE   JUBILEE. 

them  to  the  society  of  the  faithful,  to  a  share 
in  the  prayers  of  their  brethren,  to  the  com 
munion  of  her  altar  and  her  sacrifices,  and  in 
fine,  to  all  the  rights  of  which  the  grace  of  bap 
tism  had  put  them  in  possession. 

It  was-  the  greatness  alone,  of  their  sorrow 
and  repentance,  that  obtained  for  them,  this  dis 
tinction  of  favor  and  indulgence:  it  was  neces- 

0 

sary  for  them,  by  the  abundance  of  their  com 
punction,  to  have  fulfilled,  in  a  few  days,  the 
long  years  marked  out  for  their  penance :  other 
wise,  when  either  the  inconsiderateness  of 
priests,  or  the  too  great  facility  of  the  martyrs, 
awarded  these  relaxations  and  graces,  to  sucU 
of  the  faithful  as  had  not  given  distinguished 
proof  of  repentance ;  their  reconciliation,  says 
Saint  Cyprian,  was  false,  dangerous  to  those  by 
whom  it  was  granted,  ami  useless  to  those  by 
whom  it  was  received  :  Pcriculosa  dantibus,  et 
mhil  accipicntihus  profulura;  it  was  like  the 
untimely  rain  on  the  unripe  fruit,  which  far 
from  accelerating,  retards,  its  growth,  and  ren 
ders  it  incapable  of  ever  attaining  flavor  or 
maturity. 

Now  what  consequences  should  we  draw  from 
this  doctrine?  The  first  is,  that  since  the  graces 
which  the  church  dispenses,  at  this  time,  to 


ON   THE  JUBILEE.  523 

the  faithful,  are  but  the  recompence  of  com 
punction  ;  those  souls  which  bring*  no  senti 
ment  of  true  penance  to  the  holy  tribunal,  can 
have  no  just  pretension  to  share  in  them:  those 
souls  which,  after  the  abominations  of  a  cri 
minal  life,  approach  the  knee  of  God's  minis 
ters  with  a  cold  heart,  an  insensible  conscience, 
a  will  almost  quite  determined  to  return  to  the 
vomit,  are  excluded  from  this  favor.  They  are 
hardened  hearts,  over  which  the  church  weeps; 
lost  children  whom  she  deplores,  but  who,  far 
from  entering  into  a  participation  of  her  fa 
vors  writh  the  rest  of  the  faithful,  draw  down 
upon  themselves  a  new  malediction,  propor 
tionate  to  the  guilt  by  which  they  select  the 
days  of  her  greatest  bounty,  to  profane  her 
mysteries  and  her  treasures,  and  turn  tier  ve 
ry  indulgence  into  an  occasion  of  sacrilege  and 
ingratitude. 

The  second  consequence  is,  that  those  sen 
sual  and  worldly  souls,  who  appear  eager  to 
share  in  the  bounty  of  the  church,  only  because 
they  regard  it  as  an  easy  path  to  heaven,  and 
as  an  auxiliary  to  salvation,  which  dispense* 
them  from  penance ;  who  come  not  to  detest 
the  enormity,  but  to  seek  the  impunity,  of  their 
crimes :  who  fancy  that  all  is  done,  and  that  the 


524 


ON    THE    JUBILEE. 


past  is  entirely  pardoned  and  forgotten,,  as  soon 
as  they  have  complied  with  certain  exterior  ob 
servances  to  which  the  church  seems  to  attach 
the  participation  of  her  graces;  whose  whole 
sorrow  for  their  sins,  is  nothing  else  than  a 
secret  hope  that  they  shall  find  in  the  tribunal, 
a  privilege  that  will  exempt  them  from  bewail 
ing  and  punishing  their  disorders;  souls  so 
little  disposed  to  appease  the  justice  of  God; 
so  devoid  of  charity  and  faith ;  so  far  removed 
from  the  spirit  of  penance,  which  alone  can  ob 
tain  the  pardon  of  heaven  ;  are  unworthy  of  the 
grace,  and  cut  off  from  all  hope,  of  reconcilia 
tion.  What  do  they  come  to  seek  at  the  foot 
of  the  altar,  in  those  solemn  and  holy  days? 
it  is  the  sacred  asylum  of  true  penitents;  and 
the  only  mark  of  contrition,  which  they  bring 
to  it,  is  a  carnal  desire  to  be  freed  from  pe 
nance  :  it  is  the  refuge  of  tears  and  compunc 
tion  ;  and  they  turn  it  into  a  resting  place  for 
cupidity  and  sloth :  it  is  the  goal  of  lengthened 
toils,  or  of  the  zeal  that  would  still  prolong  its 
macerations;  and  they  regard  it  as  the  prize  of 
lazy  sensuality,  the  term  of  labor,  of  mortifica 
tion  and  penance.  What  illusion,  my  brethren! 
as  if  treasures  which  have  had  their  source,  in 
the  bosom  of  a  crucified  and  expiring 


ON    THE   JUBILEE.  525 

could  themselves.,  become  the  incentive,  and  the 
reward,  of  effeminacy  and  corruption  !  as  if  the 
fruit  of  the  cross  of  Jesus  Christ,  should  make 
void  that  very  cross  !  as  if  the  blood  of  the  mar 
tyrs  and  the  tears  of  the  just,  should  remain  a 
deposite  in  the  hands  of  the  church.,  only  to 
form  degenerate  and  impenitent  Christians ! 

Third  consequence.  Since  the  church,  in  the 
dispensation  of  her  favors,  intends  no  more  than 
to  reward  the  abundant  compunction  of  true  pe 
nitents,  those  sinners  who  repent  merely  with 
their  lips ;  whose  passions,  after  all  their  pro 
mises  of  amendment,  survive  and  succeed  their 
penance ;  who  have  never  placed  more  than  a 
short  interval,  between  their  approach  to  the 
sacraments  and  their  relapses  into  guilt;  who 
never  bring  to  the  tribunal,  a  sincere  resolu 
tion  of  avoiding  dangerous  occasions,  of  burst- 
ino-  attachments  that  have  been  fatal  to  their 

o 

innocence,  of  separating-  themselves  from  plea 
sures  incompatible  with  their  duties,  of  sever 
ing  connexions  and  intimacies  which  operate 
as  incitements  to  crime,  of  taking  those  wise 
measures  and  painful  steps,  which  may  van 
quish  their  passions  and  expiate  their  sins;  who 
come  to  confession  with  only  vague  purposes 
of  change,  with  wavering  resolutions,  with  an 


326 


ON   THE   JUBILEE. 


inconstant  and  irresolute  heart,  more  determined 
to  recur  to  the  sacraments  by  the  approach  of 
the  solemnity  than  by  sorrow  for  their  crimes: 
such  souls  must  expect  no  share  in  the  lar 
gesses  of  the  church  :  they  are  of  the  number 
of  those  unclean  animals  which  have  returned  a 
hundred  times  to  the  vomit;  and  whilst  she 
bewails  their  destiny,  she  repels  them  from  her 
altar,  lest  her  holy  things  should  be  defiled  by 
being-  cast  before  them. 

In  fine,  the  last  consequence  is,  that  since 
these  favors  are  the  price  of  abundant  tears  and 
of  a  new  and  superior  sorrow,  even  those  who 
bring  to  the  tribunal,  but  a  moderate  and  ordi 
nary  detestation  of  their  crimes;  who  feel  no 
additional,  no  marked,  no  truly  heartrending- 
anguish;  whom  the  increased  bounty  of  the 
church  does  not  excite  to  a  more  tender  sense, 
and  a  more  lively  acknowledgment,  of  the  mer 
cies  of  the  Lord ;  to  more  acute  feelings  of 
their  own  misery  :  who  are  not  more  roused 
by  all  the  touching  accompaniments  of  this  time 
of  grace  and  propitiation ;  sinners  of  this  cha 
racter  do  not,  perhaps,  profane  the  sacrament 
of  penance,  but  they  can  lay  no  claim  to  the 
additional  graces,  accorded  at  this  season,  by 
the  cluirqh :  they  receive,  perhaps,  the  ordinary 


ON   THE   JUBILEE.  52? 

remission  attached  to  the  virtue  of  this  sacra 
ment;  but  who  can  say,  that  they  receive  those 
signal  relaxations,,  which  are  superadded  to  it 
by  the  church,  since  those  graces  and  indul 
gences  are  destined  exclusively  to  solace  the  bit 
ter  grief,  to  reward  the  abundant  tears  and  ex 
traordinary  fervor  of  penance. 

No,  my  brethren,  if  your  hearts  be  not  filled 
with  tender  and  fervent  compunction ;  if  the 
fulness  of  your  sorrow  does  not  correspond 
with  the  multitude  of  your  crimes;  if  the  ar 
dor  of  your  love  and  of  your  gratitude  does  not 
supply  the  absence  of  those  works  of  satisfac 
tion,  which  the  weakness  of  the  flesh  puts  it  out 
of  your  power  to  perform  ;  if  your  dispositions 
bear  no  proportion  to  the  greatness  of  the  favor 
which  the  church  now  grants  you  ;  if  you  are 
not  humbled,  and,  as  it  were,  indignant  at  your 
own  infirmity  and  im potency  :  if  you  do  not 
feel  yourself  unworthy  of  the  graces  and  the 
indulgence  of  the  church ;  if  you  are  not  sen 
sible  that,  regard  being  had  to  your  almost  con 
tinual  abuse  of  grace,  you  are  a  sinner  the  most 
deserving  of  her  severity,  and  the  least  entitled 
to  her  favors ;  if  you  are  not  firmly  resolved  to 
use,  on  your  part,  every  effort  to  appease  the 
justice  of  the  Almighty,  to  make  every  sacri- 


528  ON   THE  JUBILEE. 

fice  of  which  your  weakness  is  capable  ;  to  bear, 
of  the  yoke  of  penance,  whatever  your  strength 
will  permit;  in  a  word,  in  your  works  of  satis 
faction,  to  consult  faith  and  penance  still  more 
than  the  infirmity  of  the  flesh,  the  church  ex- 
ehules  you  from  all  share  in  her  bounty.  It 
is  in  vain  that  her  ministers  attempt  to  pour 
her  graces  and  favors  upon  you  ;  she  withholds, 
or  resumes,  them,  and  disavowing  their  minis 
try,  leaves  you  but  the  wretched  portion  of  your 
own  cowardice  and  tepidity. 

Such,  my  brethren,  are  the  dispositions  of 
faith  and  of  penance,  into  which  you  must  en 
ter,  that  you  may  participate  in  the  graces  of 
the  church  ;  and,  without  doubt,  my  brethren, 
such  are  your  sentiments,  and  those  days  of 
mercy  and  forgiveness  will  be  for  you,  davs  of 
salvation  ;  those  marks  of  repentance  which  you 
bear  to  the  foot  of  the  altar,  will  not  be  in 
vain  ;  the  penitential  terror  which  is  visible  on 
your  countenance,  is  a  pledge  of  change  of 
heart;  those  deep  impressions  of  fear  and  hope, 
of  joy  and  sadness,  are  a  happy  presage  of  the 
abundant  graces  which  will  be  infused  into 
your  souls. 

Be  consoled  then,  my  brethren,  since  the 
church  opens  to  you,  the  treasury  of  her  mer- 


ON    THE   JUBILEE.  529 

cies :  approach  the  altar  with  confidence  :  and 
suffer  me,  in  conclusion,  to  address  you  in  the 
language  which  Esdras  once  used,  in  the  tem 
ple,  to  the  assembled  Jews ;  after  he  had  excited 
in  them  the  bitterest  remorse  and  the  liveliest 
sentiments  of  penance,  by  unfolding  to  them  the 
prevarications  of  which  they  had  been  guilty; 
and  by  promising,  in  order  to  console  their  sor 
rows,  to  restore  them  to  the  participation  of 
the  altar  and  the  sacrifice.  Go,  said  this  ser 
vant  of  God,  cat  fat  meats  and  drink  sweet 
wine and  be  not  sad:*  and  I,  this  day  re 
peat  to  you  the  same  words,  my  brethren,  in 
circumstances  altogether  similar:  go  and  feed 
on  that  divine  banquet  which  renovates  the  soul 
and  renders  the  faint  and  languishing  heart 
strong  and  vigorous :  you  have  been  already 
but  too  long  deprived  of  it,  by  your  fears  or 
your  crimes ;  go  and  be  inebriated  with  that 
mysterious  wine  which  is  the  parent  and  sup 
port  of  virgins  ;  which  causes  man  to  forget 
the  world  and  all  its  vanity ;  which  overthrows 
the  sway  of  worldly  reason  and  substitutes  the 
light  of  faith,  in  its  stead — a  light  which  raises 
the  holiest  transports  in  the  faithful  soul :  re- 

#2.  Esdras.  c.  vili.  v.  10. 

2    L 


T>SO  ON  THE  JUBILEE. 

turn  to  llic  altar,  from  which  you  have  been  so 
long;  separated  :  go  and  be  again  united  to  your 
brethren,  partake  with  them,  of  the  holy  mys 
teries,  and  enter  again  into  the  possession  of 
those  rights  which  you  had  forfeited  by  your 
sins  :  Itc  corned ite  pinguia  ct  bibite  mvlsum* 

Put  off  those  garments  of  mourning  and  sad 
ness  :  dry  up  those  tears,  which  have  already, 
flowed  in  sufficient  abundance :  the  present  is 
not  for  you,  a  time  of  affliction  and  bitterness, 
but  of  gladness  and  festivity :  this  is  the  day 
on  which,  all  the  graces  of  heaven  descend  upon 
the  earth,  to  purify  your  soul,  and  restore  to  it 
again,  its  first  justice:  Et  nolitc  contristari,  quia 
sanctus  dies  Domini  cst.-\ 

Never  forget  this  happy  day  :  let  the  joy  of 
a  being  restored  to  the  favor  of  the  God  of 
your  fathers,  be  to  you  a  new  source  of  cou 
rage  and  of  strength  :  let  this  termination  of  the 
wretchedness  of  your  worldly  life,  and  of  the 
anxieties  and  miseries  caused  by  your  passions  ; 
let  the  terrible  remorses  of  conscience  which 
are  now  appeased,  and  the  troubles  of  iniquity 
which  are  changed  into  a  sweet  and  delight 
ful  peace ;  let  the  pleasures  of  the  world  which 

*2.  Esdras.  c.  viii.  v.  10.         flbid. 


ON   THE   JUBILEE.  53 1 

are  replaced  by  the  participation  of  the  holy 
mysteries,,  by  the  friendship  of  God  and  the 
consolations  of  his  grace ;  let  this  new  and  hap 
py  state  on  which  you  are  going  to  enter,,  con 
sole  all  the  past  sighs  and  bitterness  of  your 
penance  :  Gaudium  enim  Domini  est  fortitudo 
nostra* 

Let  the  joys  of  sinners  be  to  you,  for  the  fu 
ture,  insipid ;  let  the  crimes  over  which  you 
have  wept,  present  themselves  no  more,  ex 
cept  to  excite  you  to  further  tears  :  to  the  last,, 
conceal  in  your  heart  the  treasure  which  you 
are  going  to  receive,  that  the  enemy  may  not 
snatch  it  away  ;  be  ever  mindful  of  the  favor  of 
your  present  reconciliation ;  and  bear  into  the 
presence  of  Jesus  Christ,  in  the  terrible  day  of 
vengeance,  his  blood,  which  the  church  now  im 
parts  to  you,  that  in  the  tremendous  judgment, 
it  may  be  the  price  of  your  iniquities,  the  abo 
lition  of  your  debts,  the  everlasting  pledge  of 
your  redemption  and  immortality. — Amen. 

*2.  Esdras.  c.  viii.  v.  10. 


532  ON   THE  GOOD   EXA..PLE 


A  DISCOURSE 


ON 


THE    GOOD    EXAMPLE   WHICH    PASTORS 
ARE  BOUND  TO  GIVE  THEIR  FLOCKS. 


Excmplum  osto  fide] him  in  vcrbo,  in  conversatione, 
in  charitate,  in  fide,  in  custitate. 

Be  thou  an  example  of  the  faithful  in  wo/v/,  in  con 
versation  ,  in  charity,  in  faith,  in  chastity. 

1.  TIMOTHY,  chap.  iv.  vcr.  1*2. 


THE  sacred  power,  my  brethren,  which  elevates 
us  above  the  rest  of  the  faithful,  is  not  a  power 
of  domination,  but  of  charity.  We  are  not  placed 
over  the  people  as  imperious  masters,  who  seek 
only  to  make  them  feel  their  authority,  but  as 
charitable  guides  whom  the  church  places  at 
their  head,  to  go  before,  and  show  them  the 
ways  of  salvation:  Ncque  ut  doinmatitcs  in  cleris 


OF    PASTORS.  533 

sed  forma  facti  gregis  ex  animo.*  It  is  chief 
ly,  in  being*  the  first  to  tread  these  paths  our 
selves.,  and  in  animating  the  faithful  to  advance 
by  our  example,  that  we  fulfil  the  august  cha 
racter  of  chiefs  and  conductors  of  the  people  of 
God.  Jesus  Christ  himself  did  not  descend 
from  his  glory,  to  find  it  again  among  men  ; 
he  came  on  earth  only  to  be  our  example;  and 
what  example,  my  brethren  ?  of  care,  of  labor, 
of  meekness,  of  charity,  of  humiliation,  of  suf 
fering :  Exemplum  dedi  vobis;j-  and  he  has  left 
us  in  his  place,  only  that  we  might  continue  to 
be  an  example  to  the  rest  of  men  :  Ut  qucmad- 
modum  ego  fed  vobis,  ita  et  vos  faciatis. 

Example  is  then,  the  first  duty  of  our  calling : 
without  it,  our  functions  either  become  useless, 
or  they  are  an  occasion  of  scandal  and  of  fall 
to  the  people,  whom  the  Lord,  in  his  wrath,  has 
consigned  to  our  care. 

FIRST    REFLECTION. 

I  say,  first,  that  all  the  functions  of  a  Pas 
tor  or  of  a  Priest  who  does  not  edify,  become 
unprofitable.  Not  that  I  am  ignorant,  my  bre 
thren,  that  the  virtue  of  the  sacraments  does 

*  1.  Peter,  c.  v.  ver.  3.         t  J°hn,  c.  xiil  v,  15. 


534 


ON    THE    GOOD    EXAMPLE 


not  depend  on  (lie  virtue  of  their  minister.  1 
know  that  the  graces,  of  which  they  are  the 
channels,  flow  infallibly  and  without  interrup 
tion,  from  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  not 
from  the  ministry  of  man.  Alas!  my  brethren, 
the  inestimable  benefits  of  God  to  his  church, 
would  be  slender  and  uncertain  indeed,  had  he 
made  them  depend  on  the  fidelity  of  his  mi 
nisters,  or  could  our  frailties  arrest  or  suspend 
their  course. 

But,  I  say,  that  the  piety,  the  instructions, 
the  prayers  of  a  faithful  pastor  prepare  the  flock 
to  receive  the  graces  of  the  church,  with  the 
dispositions  to  which  the  fruit  of  those  graces 
is  attached  ;  whereas,  a  pastor  who  edifies  not 
his  people,  dispenses,  indeed,  the  same  trea 
sures  and  the  same  graces,  but  they  fall  upon 
an  ungrateful  soil,  upon  hearts,  which  not  only 
are  badly  prepared  for  their  reception,  but 
which  his  example  has  even  closed  up  against 
all  the  influence  of  grace  :  he  sows,  and  reaps 
not ;  he  waters,  and  there  is  no  increase,  and 
the  sacred  field  committed  to  his  care  and  cul 
tivation,  is  struck  with  malediction  and  sterility. 
I  say,  that  sinners  quit  his  tribunal  with  as  little 
compunction  for  their  disorders,  as  he  seems 
to  feel  for  his  own.  I  say,  that  they  approach 


OF   PASTORS.  535 

the  holy  table,  with  the  same  Irreverence,  the 
same   weaknesses,   and    consequently,    with   as 
little  fruit,  as  they  see  himself  do  every  day:  I 
say,,  that  the  word  of  truth  in  his  mouth,  should 
he  take  the  trouble  of  announcing;  it,  will  be 
as  the  sounding  brass,  arid  that  his  instructions 
must  find  his  auditors  quite  determined  not  to 
reduce  them  to  practice,   but  to  disregard  and 
despise   them  :    I  say,  that  if  he   undertake  to 
console  the  wretched  and  afflicted,   he  has  not 
the  gift  of  assuaging  those  sorrows  which  re 
ligion  alone  can  soften,  nor  of  arresting  those 
tears  which  the  piety  alone  of  the  consoler,  can 
hinder  to  flow :    if  he  exhorts  the  dying,  alas ! 
his  very  presence   reminds  them    of  the  world 
rather  than  of  eternity,  inspires  them  with  the 
love  of  the    present  life  much  more  than  with 
the  expectation  or  desire  of  that  life  which  is 
not  to  end  :   I  say,  in  fine,  that  his  ministry  is 
a  frightful   void.,  his  church  a  dry  and  barren 
field    which    produces  nothing    but    briars   and 
thorns,    himself  an    evaporated    salt,   incapable 
of  preserving  from  corruption,  and  unprofitable 
for  all   those  uses,  for  which  it  was,  original 
ly  designed.     What  a  misfortune  to  that  flock, 
to   which  God  in  his  wrath  has  given  such   a 
pastor !  what  a  misfortune  still  greater,  if  this 


ON    THE   GOOD    EXAMPLE 

flock  should,  under  his  guidance,  be  visited 
with  those  other  passing  calamities  with  which 
God  sometimes  afflicts  men,  such  as  storms, 
inundations,  sterility,  famine ;  and  above  all, 
what  a  misfortune  if  it  does  not  feel  that  most 
lasting  and  terrible  scourge  with  which  God 
can  strike,  a  people,  which  is,  to  leave  them  to 
be  conducted  by  a  bad  Priest. 

And  what  is  here  still  more  lamentable,  my 
brethren,  is,  that  a  Priest  of  this  character,  lov 
ing  neither  study,  nor  prayer,  nor  retirement,  is 
obliged  to  dissipate  himself  continually  abroad  ; 
and  the  more  he  shows  himself  to  his  people, 
the  more  useless  he  becomes  in  their  regard  ; 
the  more  he  shows  himself,  the  more  manifest 
does  he  render  his  worthlessness,  and  the  more 
does  he  destroy  the  little  of  fruit,  Which  his 
functions  might  otherwise  produce.  For,  my 
brethren,  what  benefit  can  his  people  draw  from 
his  presence  and  conversatidn  ?  what  do  they 
see  in  beholding  him?  they  see  nothing  that 
bears  them  towards  God,  nothing  to  sustain 
their  faitb,  nothing  to  remind  them  of  the  duties 
of  religion,  nothing  to  undeceive  them,  or  guard 
them  against  the  errors  and  prejudices  which 
the  passions  have  scattered  through  the  world, 
and  which  damn  the  greater  part  of  Christians : 


OF   PASTORS.  537 

on  the  contrary.,  they  behold  every  thing*  that 
can  render  them  indifferent  to  salvation  and  es 
trange  them  from  God,  every  thing  to  counte 
nance  their  disorders,  every  thing-  to  confirm 
them  in  error,  every  thing  to  stifle  the  first 
alarms  of  conscience,  and  harden  them  in  guilt: 
in  a  word,  the  presence  of  a  pastor  who  holds, 
in  their  regard,  the  place  of  Jesus  Christ,  is 
not  for  them  a  religious  spectacle,  but  an  ob 
ject  as  common  and  as  profane,  as  any  other 
of  the  age. 

Consider  on  the  other  hand,  my  brethren,  the 
inestimable  good  which  the  example,  and  even 
the  presence,  of  a  holy  pastor,  effects  in  a  pa 
rish.  If  he  but  appear,  his  life  and  his  mo 
rals  are  a  continual  lesson  to  his  people :  there 
passes  not  a  day,  in  which  this  living  and  vene 
rable  example,  arrests  not  some  sinner  on  the 
brink  of  guilt,  inspires  not  some  other  with 
desires  of  conversion,  makes  not  the  libertine 
blush  in  secret,  and  hide  at  least  the  scandal 
of  his  vices,  if  it  fail  of  inducing  him  to  cor 
rect  his  irregular  life:  no  day  in  which  it 
sustains  not,  feeble  and  wavering  souls,  con 
soles  not  the  piety  of  the  just,  and  malces  not 
virtue  be  respected  even  by  those  who  live  in 
crime.  How  boundless  the  good,  my  brethren. 


538  Otf   THE   GOOD   EXAMPLE 

which  we  could  produce,  were  we  but  faithful 
to  our  vocation !   and  how  terrible  the  account 
which-  the  Sovereign  Pastor  will  demand  of  us, 
if  our    licentious   or  unclerical   morals    oppose 
an  obstacle  to  the  growth   of  those   abundant 
fruits,  which  he  expected  from   our  priesthood, 
and   which  a   holy   pastor  would  have  matured 
to  perfection,  in  our  place.     Let  us  often  call 
to    mind    this    terrible   and    humiliating*   truth: 
were  a  virtuous  pastor  set  over  the  people,  to 
whom  I  am  a  guide,  and  amongst  whom,  my 
ministry  has   hitherto   operated   no   change  for 
the  better,  no  renovation  of  piety,  how    many 
souls  would  he  not  have  gained  to  Jesus  Christ  ( 
how  many  crimes  would  he  not  have  prevent 
ed?  how  many  inveterate  sores  would    he  not 
have  healed  ?  how  many  consciences  led  astray 
and  tranquil  in  their  errors,  would  he  not  have 
enlightened?  how  many  souls,  on  the  verge  of 
the  precipice,  would  he  not  have  rescued  from 
destruction?  what  glorious  spoils,  wrested  from 
the  prince  of  the  world,  would  he  not,  on  quit 
ting  this  life,  have  presented  at  the  throne  of 
the  Lamb?   with  what  a  holy  confidence  would 
he  not  Ivave  appeared  at  the  bar  of  heaven,  ac 
companied   by   those  souls  which    would  have 
been  indebted  to  him,  for  their  salvation,   and 


-OP  PASTORS.  539 

\vtiich  he  would  have  offered  to  Christ  Jesus, 
to  whom  they  belonged  by  so  many  titles? 
It  is  thus  that  a  holy  pastor,  in  our  place, 
would  have  ascended  to  heaven,  and  appeared 
in  the  presence  of  the  Lord,  surrounded  by  the 
trophies  of  his  conquests  over  the  powers  of 
darkness,  and  leading-,  in  triumph,  the  -souls 
which  he  had  delivered  from  the  captivity  of  sin  : 
Expolians  prindpatus  et  potestates,  ascendem 
in  ccclum  captivam  dux.it  captivitatem. 

But,  alas  !  how  shall  the  worthless  pastor 
appear  before  the  Most  Pligh,  he  whose  ex 
ample  far  from  edifying  his  people,  has,  as  we 
shall  quickly  see,  but  increased  their  disorders. 
How  shall  he  appear  in  the  presence  of  his 
Judge,  he,  without  confidence  or  succour,  alone, 
humbled,  confounded,  clothed  with  a  sacred 
character  which  will  then  be  turned  into  -a 
dreadful  title  of  condemnation  ?  And  if  he  be 
followed  by  those  souls  that  have  been  con 
fided  to  his  care,  they  will  be  souls  which  he 
had  neglected ;  souls  that  will  cry  aloud  for 
justice  against  him,  whilst  they  represent  at 
the  tribunal  of  the  sovereign  Judge,  that  had 
he,  in  his  mercy,  sent  them  a  Priest  according 
to  his  own  heart,  a  pastor  who  would  himself 
have  been  their  model  ami  their  guide,  thej 


540  ON    THE   GOOD    EXAMPLE 

would,,   like   Tyre  and   Sidon,  have  long  since, 
done  penance  in  sack -cloth  and  ashes. 

Thus,  my  brethren,  as  you  already  perceive, 
it  is,  of  itself,  a  grievous  misfortune  that  a 
pastor,  failing  to  edify  his  flock  by  his  example, 
does  by  that  alone,  render  his  functions  useless 
in  their  regard  :  it  is,  as  Saint  Gregory  says, 
a  lamentable  evil,  that  combating  by  his  morals, 
the  truths  which  he  announces,  he  deprives 
them  of  their  force  and  influence  on  the  minds 
of  his  people ;  and  that  the  preaching  of  the 
gospel,  the  principal  means  established  by  God 
for  the  salvation  of  the  just  and  the  conver 
sion  of  sinners,  becomes,  in  his  mouth,  utterly 
unprofitable  to  all  those  who  hear  him  :  it  is  a 
lamentable  evil,  that  all  the  other  aids  of  reli 
gion,  of  which  he  is  the  dispenser,  lose,  in  his 
worthless  hands,  all  that  could  render  them 
available  and  salutary  to  a  disorderly  and  neces 
sitous  people. 

SECOND    REFLECTION. 

But,  this  is  only  the  beginning  of  the  misfor 
tunes  and  calamities  of  this  unfortunate  people*: 
Initium  dolorum  hcec.*  Not  only  does  the  ex. 

*  Mark.  c.  xiii.  v.  8. 


OF   PASTORS.  541 

ample  of  this  unedifying  pastor  render  all  his 
functions  unprofitable  to  his  people,  but  it  be 
comes  moreover,  according  to  the  Prophet  Osee, 
a  perpetual  and  almost  inevitable  occasion  of 
transgression  and  ruin  to  this  ill-fated  flock : 
Propheta  laqucus  ruince.*  Not  only  is  he  a 
useless  labourer  in  the  field  of  Jesus  Christ, 
but  he  destroys,  he  ravages,  he  makes  it  the  ha 
bitation  of  devils :  not  only  is  he  of  no  advan 
tage  to  the  flock,  but  he  infects  and  poisons  it, 
and  spreads  an  odor  of  death  through  the  fold. 
For,  in  good  earnest,  my  brethren,  what  must 
be  the  impression  made  on  a  rude  and  simple 
people,  by  the  unedifying  life  of  a  pastor  whom 
it  has  always  under  its  eyes  ?  Alas  !  where  can 
this  wretched  people,  buried  in  fastnesses  and 
solitudes,  and,  as  it  were,  cut  off  from  society, 
discover  the  beauties  of  religion  and  the  duties 
which  she  imposes,  if  the  very  man  who  is  by 
his  state,  charged  with  the  interests  of  virtue 
among  them,  charged  to  announce,  to  protect, 
and  insure  it,  becomes  by  his  morals  an  object 
of  seduction  and  a  model  of  vice?  Ignorance 
and  corruption,  already  too  far  justify  to  the 
people,  their  own  disorders,  and  a  faithful  pas- 

*Oscc.  c.  ix.  v.  8. 


512  ON    THE   GOOD    EXAMPLE 

tor  has  the  bitter  regret  of  beholding  his  cares, 
his  instructions,  his  example,  long  unavailing, 
against  the  force  of  their  unfortunate  prejudices  : 
what  remedy  can  remain  for  them  when  the  un 
faithful  pastor  justifies  them  by  his  own  conduct? 
They  expected  from  him  an  example  of  integri 
ty,  of  charity,  of  modesty,  of  temperance ;  they 
regarded  him  as  a  pious  and  severe  censor,  in 
capable  of  tolerating  amongst  them,  public  dis 
orders  opposed  to  these  virtues  ;  they  were  de 
vising  how  to  conceal  them  from  his  sight,  and 
how  to  hide  themselves  whilst  they  indulged  in 
them,  that  they  might  not  awaken  his  zeal  and 
expose  themselves  to  his  just  indignation:  what 
a  welcome  surprise  to  find  him  not  only  a 
tranquil  spectator,  but  a  public  approver,  and 
by  his  morals,  even  an  accomplice  in  their  guilt! 
what  traces  of  religion  or  piety  can  then  re 
main  amongst  this  people?  crime  exhibits  it 
self  without  disguise,  and  is  indulged  without 
scruple  :  all  persuade  themselves  that  there  can 
be  no  danger  in  following  a  guide  who  knows 
more  than  themselves,  and  who  is  better  in 
structed  than  they  can  be,  in  what  religion  for- 
bids  or  commands ;  and  thus  all  anxiety  ceases, 
and  every  remorse  of  conscience  subsides  into 
security,  before  this  illusive  and  fatal  per^ua- 


OF   PASTORS. 


543 


sioiv.  This  unfaithful  pastor  is  a  living  and 
continual  apology  for  vice  ;  and  if  such  be  the 
corruption  of  man,  that  the  virtuous  minister 
who  is  perpetually  struggling  against  it,  cannot 
arrest  its  course,  what  must  be  the  overflow 
of  crime  and  depravity,  over  a  parish,  where 
the  example  of  the  vicious  pastor  but  adds  to 
the  inundation  ? 

Alas!  my  brethren,  if  our  people  are  often 
times  scandalized  at  our  most  innocent  actions  ; 
if  they  are  more  severe,  more  clear- sigh  ted, 
more  censorious  in  our  regard,  than  towards 
the  rest  of  men ;  if  we  are  frequently  obliged 
to  refrain  from  the  most  lawful  and  indiffer 
ent  things,  through  fear  of  offending  their 
weakness ;  if  whatever  is  not  virtue  in  us,  ap 
pears  crime  to  them ;  if  we  seem  to  them,  guilty, 
when  we  are  not  saints  in  their  eyes ;  if  the 
innocent  repasts  of  Jesus  Christ,  made  him 
pass  in  the  mind  of  the  Jews  for  a  man  addict 
ed  to  wine  and  good  living;  if  that  charity, 
which  made  him  converse  with  men,  loaded 
with  crimes  and  extortions,  to  call  them  to  re 
pentance,  obtained  for  him,  from  the  Pharisees, 
the  unjust  title  of  friend  of  publicans  and  sin 
ners  ;  if  even  innocence  and  piety  are  not  be 
yond  the  reach  of  malicious  suspicions ;  and  if 


344 


ON    THE    GOOD    EXAMPLE 


the  people,   in   order  to  justify   to   themselves 
their  own  vices,  endeavour  to  discover  in   the 
most  virtuous   and    irreproachable    conduct   of 
the  clergy,   the  criminal   motives  of  avarice,  of 
pride,  of  animosity  ;   what  must  be  their  scan 
dal  at  the  suspicious  familiarity,  the  public  and 
criminal  connexions,  the  gluttony,  intemperance 
and  sordid  avarice  of  a  bad  Priest  ?     If  the  un 
just  suspicions  which   they  form  of  the  virtue 
of  a  good  pastor,  confirm  them  in  vice  and  ren 
der  all  his   instructions   unprofitable   to   them; 
what  weight  can  the  word  of  life  have  in  the 
mouth  of  a  scandalous   Priest?    not  only  is  it 
without  effect,  but  it  becomes  contemptible ;  it 
loses  not  only   its  force,    but  even    its   divine 
truth  ;  and,  instead  of  touching  and  converting 
sinners,  disgusts  and  hardens  them,  and  far  from 
strengthening-  their  faith  and  quickening  their 
piety,    renders  them  impious  and   incredulous. 
A  rude  and  corrupt  people  regard,  as  so  many 
fables,  those  truths  and  maxims  announced  by  a 
Priest,  who  despises  them  in  his  own  conduct: 
they  persuade  themselves  that  the  pastor  him 
self  disregards  them,  and  that  his  office,  which 
obliges  him  to  announce  them,  is  a  function  of 
mere  ceremony,  a  mummery  set  up  to  deceive 
and  frighten  the  simple  and  the  ignorant :  they 
direct  their  attention  to  the  morals  and  the 


OF   PASTORS.  545 

duct  of  their  pastor;  this  is  their  religion  and 
their  gospel ;  his  guilt  is  an  argument  to  which 
there  can  be  no  reply,  and  which  therefore  de 
cides  them  at  once :  after  this,,  his  exhortations 
appear  to  them  as  the  idle  harangues  of  the 
stage ;  they  make  a  mockery  of  the  pastor  and  of 
his  ministry;  they  speak  of  him  as  of  a  con 
temptible  mountebank,  who  has  indeed  perform 
ed  his  part  well ;  and  thus  their  hearts  become 
every  day  more  callous,,  their  vices  more  impu 
dent,  and  thus  they  are  confirmed  in  their  gross 
and  brutal  manner  of  thinking  and  speaking  of 
whatever  is  most  exalted  and  venerable,  in  re 
ligion  itself.  The  altar,  defiled  by  this  scan 
dalous  pastor,  seems  to  them  not  more  sacred> 
nor  more  venerable  than  the  pulpit  which  he 
dishonours :  the  whole  economy  of  religion 
they  regard  as  a  human  invention,  devised  for 
the  sole  interest  of  those  who  are  its  minis 
ters,  and  who  cull  from  its  maxims,  merely  what 
accommodates  themselves,  and  elevates  them  to 
consideration  and  honors. 

These  blasphemies  shock  you,  my  brethren, 
but  it  is  we  ourselves  that  occasion  them,  when 
the  holiness  of  our  lives  corresponds  not  with 
the  sanctity  of  our  character.  It  is  owing  to 
the  scandals  alone,  given  by  bad  Priests,  that 


546  ON  THE   GOOD    EXAMPLE 

religion  fails,  and  that  impiety  increases  among 
the  people :  Per  vos  nomen  Dei  blasphcmalur 
inter  gcntes*  The  infidels  of  the  age,  the 
most  hardened  and  dissolute  sinners,  assign  no 
other  cause  for  the  tranquillity  which  they  enjoy 
in  their  deplorable  state,  no  other  apology  for 
their  vices  than  the  example  of  a  bad  Priest. 
This,  as  you  well  know,  is  the  string  on  which 
an  impious  and  depraved  world  never  ceases  to 
harp ;  and  a  vice  so  universal,  so  dishonouring 
to  our  office,  so  afflicting  to  faithful  ministers, 
should  make  us  sensible  of  the  immense  and 
terrible  consequences  that  flow  from  the  unedi- 
fying  life  of  a  pastor  of  the  church.  Alas  ! 
there  is,  perhaps,  no  crime  committed  among 
men  which  has  not  its  origin  in  this  fatal 
source  :  perhaps  all  those  unfortunate  sojuls  who 
have  heretofore  belonged  to  the  fold,  and  who 
are  now  in  torments,  serrated  for  ever  from 
God,  owe  their  eternal  misery  to  the  scanda 
lous  disorders  and  cursed  example  of  the  pas 
tors  with  whom  they  lived :  perhaps,  (and  I 
say  it  with  grief  and  terror,)  perhaps,  there  are 
some  in  those  dungeons  of  horror  who  can  trace 
their  damnation  even  to  our  own  bad  example. 
All  those  torrents  of  depravity  and  crime  which 

*Rom.  c.  ii.  v.  24. 


OF   PASTORS.  547 

inundate  and  overwhelm  the  people  of  God, 
have  their  origin,  says  a  Prophet,  in  the  very 
depths  of  the  sanctuary.  And,  my  brethren,  the 
mercies  of  the  Lord  must  be  g~eat  and  pecu 
liar  towards  a  parish,  conducted  by  a  scandalous 
Priest,  and  the  power  of  his  arm  must  be  visi 
bly  displayed  in  its  regard,  when  a  single  soul  is 
saved  from  the  destructive  contagion,  or  outlives 
the  deadly  influence  of  his  wicked  example. 

Alas,  my  brethren,  complaints  are,  sometimes, 
made,  that  those  who  are  here  entrusted  with 
the  education  of  the  clergy,  and  with  the  scru 
tiny  of  their  vocation,  use  too  much  severity 
in  the  examination  of  those,  whom  they  pre 
sent  for  holy  orders!  But,  my  brethren,  if  you 
could  fully  comprehend  the  frightful  effects  that 
result  from  the  disorders  and  the  example  of  a 
bad  Priest;  if  the  veil  that  conceals  the  secrets 
of  conscience  could  be  raised  ;  if  the  mystery 
of  iniquity  which  is  done  in  secret,  could  be 
uncovered  here  on  earth  ;  how  many  crimes  and 
blasphemies  should  we  see,  how  much  mockery 
and  contempt,  how  many  derisions  and  sacri 
leges  against  religion !  how  many  timid  sinners 
confirmed  in  guilt !  how  many  souls  born  with 
sentiments  of  virtue,  plunged  into  the  abyss  of 
vice!  how  many  weakly  and  imperfect  just, 
again  dragged  back  into  their  first  disorders! 


548  ON    THE   GOOD    EXAMPLE 

how  many  innocent  hearts  poisoned  in  the  morn 
ing  of  lite !  how  many  impious  doubts  raised 
against  the  sanctity  of  Christ's  doctrine,  and 
against  the  most  sacred  duties  which  it  imposes! 
how  many  horrible  maxims  of  irreligion  and 
libertinism!  all  these  monsters,  nay,  and  so  ma 
ny  others  which  the  eye  has  never  beheld,  and 
which  the  tongue  could  not  name  without  hor 
ror,  we  should  see  springing  from  this  fatal 
source  and  scattering  infection  and  death  around. 
What  precautions  then  can  be  deemed  too  great, 
when  there  is  question  of  preserving  the  church 
from  the  intrusion  of  ministers  whom  God  re 
jects,  and  who  are,  always,  the  unfortunate  au 
thors  of  these  terrible  misfortunes?  Alas!  my 
brethren,  could  you  wish  that  earthly  and  frivo 
lous  considerations  should,  with  us,  bear  down 
such  grand  and  serious  interests,  or  that  we 
should  suffer  a  false  piety  to  prevail  against  the 
inevitable  loss  of  so  many  souls,  which  the  se 
lection  of  a  bad  Priest,  drags  with  himself  into 
eternal  perdition  ?  and  would  we  not  deserve  all 
the  maledictions  of  heaven,  if  the  first  source  of 
these  afflicting  scandals  and  of  all  the  evils  of 
the  church,  were  to  be  found  in  our  weak  and 
fatal  condescension,  and  in  our  base  attention 
to  the  solicitations  of  flesh  and  blood. 


OF   PASTORS.  549 

No :  my  brethren,  such  is  the  destiny  of  a 
Priest,  that  raised  from  the  earth  by  the  pre 
eminence  of  his  dignity,,  he  must,  like  Jesus 
Christ,  the  true  serpent  of  brass,  draw  all  up 
wards  to  himself,  or  like  the  dragon  mentioned 
in  the  Apocalypse,  precipitate  into  the  abyss, 
both  himself  and  the  stars  attached  to  him,  that 
is  to  say,  all  the  souls  confided  to  his  ministry. 
For  a  pastor  there  is  no  middle  course  :  if  he 
does  not  edify,  he  scandalizes;  if  he  does  not 
vivify,  he  kills;  if  his  morals  are  not  a  model 
of  virtue,  they  are  a  stumbling  block  of  vice  ; 
if  his  whole  conduct  does  not  bespeak  and 
breathe  piety,  it  inspires,  it  authorizes  and  mul 
tiplies  sin.  Yet,  the  ministry,  which  charges  us 
with  the  care  of  souls,  and  places  us  over  a  por 
tion  of  Christ's  flock,  is  a  subject  of  terror  to 
none  of  us  ;  we  desire  and  solicit  it ;  and  rejoice 
when  we  have  secured  it;  we  employ,  for  the 
obtaining  of  it,  means  condemned  by  the  laws  of 
the  church,  for  all  seeking,  and  even  all  desire 
of  it,  are  contrary  to  her  spirit,  and  she  has,  al 
ways,  regarded  them  as  intrusive  and  sacrilegi 
ous.  Whoever  is  called  by  himself  is  an  in 
truder,  and  has  not  entered  by  the  door :  there 
are  none  truly  called,,  save  those  who  are  call 
ed  by  the  church,  and  the  surest  mark  of  her 
vocation,  is  a  holy  fear  of  being  crushed  to  the 


550  ON   THE   GOOD    EXAMPLE 

earth  under  the  heavy  burden  which  she  im 
poses  on  their  shoulders.  Alas!  my  brethren., 
\ve  look  upon  the  places  of  the  ministry  as  earth 
ly  and  temporal  advantages;  \ve  desire  them, 
as  situations  which  ensure  a  fixed  and  easy 
competency,  and  as  the  final  term  of  our  ambi 
tious  and  subordinate  labors.  We  forget,  or 
do  not  heed,  the  engagements,  into  which  we 
enter,,  or  the  obligations  which  we  contract  to 
wards  the  flock  which  the  church  commits  to 
our  solicitude.  We  become,  as  it  were,  se 
curity,  for  the  salvation  of  all  the  souls  whom 
Christ  puts  into  our  hands :  if  a  single  one  pe 
rish,  it  will  be  for  us  to  prove  to  him,  that  it 
was  not  through  our  want  of  care,  of  instruc 
tion,  of  example,  or  of  prayer,  that  this  soul, 
\vhich  he  had  confided  to  us  in  trust,  was  mi 
serably  lost.  We  hold  his  place  amongst  the 
flock,  and  shall  we  be  able  to  say  to  him,  as 
lie  said  to  his  Father,  that  of  those  whom  he 
gave  us,  one  has  not  perished  through  our 
fault  ? 

Permit  me  then,  my  brethren,  in  conclusion, 
to  address  you,  in  the  words  of  the  Apostle: 
Ilaque,  fratres  mei  delecti  stabiles  estate  et  im- 
mobilcs:*  for  such  is  the  true  nature  of  the 

*1.  Cor.  c.  xv.  v.  58. 


OF   PASTORS.  551 

case,    that  your   example  must  decide   on   the 
success  of  your  functions,  on  the  entire  fruit 
of  your  ministry,  on  the  salvation  of  your  peo 
ple  and  of  yourselves.     You,  in  particular,  my 
brethren,  who  fulfil  with  edification,  the  duties 
of    your  calling-,    never  relax   from   your  first 
fervor :  stabiles  estate  et  immobiles :  let  not  the 
negligence  and  misconduct  of  some  among  your 
brethren,  shake  the  firmness  of  your  faith,  nor 
cool   your   zeal,    nor  abate   your  exactness  in 
the  discharge    of   your   ministry :    let   not  the 
abuses  upheld,  oftentimes,  by  the  conduct  of  tl*e 
greater  number  of  your  clerical  brethren,  eve  I 
prevail  with  you,  over  the  sacred  laws  that  con 
demn  them.    Let  not  tepidity,  dissipation,  care 
lessness,  and  that  attachment  to  perishable  things, 
which  almost   every  where,   infects  the  minis 
try,  make  you  forget  the  sanctity  of  your  state ; 
but,    on   the   contrary,   recal    it    incessantly   to 
your  mind,  and  let  the  abuses,  of  which  you  are 
the  witnesses,   but  render  your  obligations  the 
more  present  to  you,   the  more  dear,  and  the 
more  respectable.      Instead  of  looking   around 
you,  where  you,  too  frequently,  behold  in  the 
conduct  of  your  brethren,  subjects  of  seduction 
or  of  grief,  direct  your  eyes,  unceasingly,  to 
wards  those  holy  and  illustrious  men,  who  first 
preached  Jesus  Christ  in  this  land ;   those  and- 


652  ON   THE   GOOD    EXAMPLE 

ent  and  venerable  models  of  priestly  excellence, 
pastors  whose  zeal,  labor  and  sanctity,  we  are 
still  far  from  daring-  to  flatter  ourselves  that  v\e 
shall  ever  be  able  to  attain  :   Itaque  fratres  mei 
stabiles  estate  et  immobile*,  abundantcs  in  opere 
Domini  semper.     Never,  at  any  period  of  your 
life,    never    regard    your   office    as    the   happy 
term  of  your  labor,  as  a  place  of  honourable  re 
pose  ;  rather  be  mindful,  that  you  cannot  lose  a 
moment  in   which    you  might  not  have  gained 
a  soul  to  Jesus   Christ :    be  not  satisfied  with 
the  discharging  those  public  and  ordinary  func 
tions  of   the  ministry,   by  the  performance    of 
which    the    pastor   too  often  imagines   that  he 
has   done   all    that   duty   required ;   as   long  as 
you  shall  see  among  your  people,  sinners  to  be 
converted,  abuses  to  be  corrected,  wounds  to  be 
healed,  and  weak  to  be  supported,  never  think 
that  you  have  fully  acquitted  yourself  of  your 
obligations :  let  zeal  and  charity    impose  cares 
on   you,    and   urge  you  to  actions   which  the 
mere  letter   of  the  law  may  not  seem  to  pre 
scribe,  but  which  its  spirit  exacts :  never  mea 
sure  your  pastoral  solicitude  by  common  rules, 
but  by  the  necessities  of  the  flock  which  God 
has  confided  to  your  care  :   Abundantes  in  opere 
Domini  semper.      Let  not  age   itself,    nor  the 
long  discharge  of  those  functions  in  which  you 


OF   PASTORS.  553 

have  grown  old,  appear  to  you  a  lawful  reason 
for  giving  up  the  combat,  and  for  resigning 
yourself,  at  last,  to  that  repose,  to  which  so  ma 
ny  years  of  labor  would  seem  to  entitle  you :  ra 
ther  renew  your  youth  like  the  eagle ;  cha 
rity  gives  that  strength,  which  nature  seems 
to  refuse;  the  precious  remnant  of  your  life 
is  honourable  to  the  ministry;  be  the  Eleazers 
of  the  new  law,  nor  let  old  age  itself  become 
a  motive  for  indulging  yourselves  in  any 
thing  unworthy  of  a  long  life  spent  in  the  ser 
vice  of  religion,  or  an  example  of  remissness 
and  neglect  to  young  pastors  who,  not  hav 
ing  witnessed  your  past  fidelity,  would  take 
your  present  relaxation  as  the  model  of  their 
conduct :  Abundantes  in  opere  Domini  semper. 
Thus  the  nearer  you  advance  to  the  goal,  the 
more  should  your  zeal  be  enkindled  :  you  and 
I,  my  brethren,  are  rapidly  approaching  fhe  mo 
ment  that  will  consummate  our  course :  what 
a  misfortune  then,  if  on  the  point  of  arriving 
at  it,  our  strength  and  our  courage  should  fail, 
and  if,  by  a  premature  repose,  we  should  lose 
the  entire  fruit  of  a  life  honourably  spent  in 
the  virtuous  cares  and  assiduous  labors  of  the 
Christian  priesthood !  Amen. 


554  TO    CHILDREN 


A  DISCOURSE 

TO  CHILDREN  BEFORE  CONFIRMATION. 


MY  DEAR  CHILDREN  i  the  sacrament  which  you 
are  going  to  receive  may  be  considered  as  the 
perfection  of  your  baptism  :  it  is  a  sacrament  of 
strength  and  of  the  fulness  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 
By  baptism  you  became  children  of  God,  but 
by  confirmation  you  will  become  perfect  men  ; 
that  is  to  say,  this  sacrament  will  produce  on 
you,  the  same  elfects  which  it  formerly  produced 
on  the  first  Christians,  if  you  receive  it  with  the 
same  dispositions. 

First,  they  received  with  it,  the  gift  of  tongues 
and  the  power  of  miracles.  Alas!  my  dear 
children,  we  do  not  expect  that  it  will  operate 
those  wonders  on  you :  those  external  gifts  have 
become  unnecessary  for  the  church,  and  the 
faith  does  not  now  stand  in  need  of  those 
great  testimonies.  But  what  we  have  a  right 
to  expect  is,  that  the  Holy  Ghost  which  you 


BEFORE   CONFIRMATION.  555 

are  going  to  receive,  will  make  you  speak  the 
language  of  God  and  of  virtue,  and  that,  for  the 
future,  all  your  conversations  will  be  pious  and 
holy  ;  that  you  will  carefully  avoid  the  profane 
discourse  of  the  world,  and  all  language  of  an 
ger,  of  detraction,  of  untruth,  of  indecency  and 
lewdness.  You  will  thus  speak  a  new  lan 
guage,  and  one  that  is  unknown  to  the  chil 
dren  of  the  world ;  you  will  show  that  the  Ho 
ly  Ghost  abides,  and  speaks,  in  you,  and  that 
if  you  have  not  received  the  gift  of  tongues, 
you  have  received  one  more  excellent,  which  is 
the  gift  of  making  a  holy  use  of  your  own. 

In  the  second  place,  after  the  first  Christians 
had  received  the  sacrament  of  the  imposition  of 
hands,  which  is  that  of  confirmation,  they  be 
came  stronger  in  the  faith,  more  courageous 
in  confessing  Jesus  Christ,  more  intrepid  be 
fore  their  persecutors  and  tyrants.  You  have 
110  longer  persecutors  to  dread,  my  dear  chil 
dren  ;  the  time  of  suffering  and  martyrdom  is 
past,  and  princes  and  magistrates  now  carry,  in 
defence  of  the  faith,  that  sword,  which  was 
formerly  employed  in  combating  it  and  in  ex 
terminating  its  disciples. 

But  you  have  other  combats  to  maintain,  even 
in  the  bosom  of  the  church  :  the  first  against 
the  world;  the  second  against  yourselves;  and 


TO    CHILDREN 

that  courage  and  firmness  which  are  necessary 
to  enable  you  to  conquer,  ought  to  be  the  vi 
sible  fruit  of  this  sacrament.  First,  my  dear 
children,  you  have  to  combat  the  world  :  you 
will  find  in  it,  men  of  corrupt  faith  and  vici 
ous  morals,  who  will  endeavour  to  shake  yours, 
who  will  speak  the  language  of  debauchery 
and  impiety.  Oppose  to  such  discourses  and 
attacks,  a  courage  worthy  of  soldiers  of  Jesus 
Christ;  defend  the  interests  and  the  glory  of 
your  master,  and  confound  the  impious  wretch, 
by  the  very  horror  which  you  will  manifest,  for 
his  impiety.  You  would  not  sufler  an  enemy 
or  a  fool,  to  speak  insultingly  of  your  father, 
before  you  ;  and  how  can  you  sufler  a  profane 
wretch  to  outrage  in  your  presence,  that  God 
from  whom  you  derive  your  being ;  who  is 
your  first  Father  and  who  will  be  your  eternal 
reward  ? 

You  will  also  find  in  the  world,  men  who  will 
turn  piety  into  ridicule;  who  will  deride  the 
practices  of  religion,  and  stigmatize  as  a  weak 
ness,  the  observance  of  the  duties  which  it 
imposes.  After  you  shall  have  received  the  sa 
crament  of  courage  and  strength,  my  dear  chil 
dren,  you  will  no  longer  dread  those  rcvilers 
of  piety  and  virtue.  If  among  those  of  your 
own  age,  there  should  be  some  found  so  cor- 


BEFORE   CONFIRMATION.  557 

rupt  as  to  mock  those  who  are  faithful  to  God, 
their  sinful  railleries  will  not  affect  you ;  you 
will  pity  their  blindness,  and  shame  their  folly, 
by  boldly  confessing  JCMS  Christ:  you  will 
despise  that  human  respect,,  which  often  pre 
vents  cowardly  Christians  from  openly  profess 
ing  their  faith  and  their  piety  before  men,  who 
wickedly  and  madly  deride  both :  you  will  fear 
God,  and  disregard  the  censure  and  scorn  of 
men.  In  fine,  you  will  see  every  vice  autho 
rized  by  example,  in  the  world  ;  and  you  will, 
perhaps,  find  rocks  even  among  your  own  rela 
tions  and  friends ;  their  disorderly  lives  will  be 
for  you,  a  perpetual  temptation  to  sin  :  to  what 
ever  side  you  turn,  you  will  behold  vice  applaud 
ed  and  the  worst  passions  defended  and  justi 
fied  :  you  need  courage,  my  dear  children,  to 
resist  these  bad  examples ;  they  are  the  tyrants 
and  persecutors,  whom  you  have  to  withstand, 
and  whom  the  grace  of  confirmation,  if  you 
continue  faithful  to  it,  will  give  you  strength 
to  overcome.  Remember,  my  dear  children, 
that  what  is  approved  by  the  multitude,  is  al 
most  always  condemned  by  the  law  of  God  ; 
that  whoever  has  no  other  justification  than 
the  practice  of  the  world,  is  equally  criminal 
as  the  world;  that  to  be  a  true  Christian,  it  is 
necessary  to  be  the  image  of  Jesus  Christ,  and 


558 


TO    CHILDREN 


that  you   cannot  resemble  him,  if  you  live  ac 
cording  to  the  world. 

In  fine,  the  second  combat  which  you  will 
have  to  maintain,  one  more  terrible  and  more 
dangerous  than  the  first,  will  be  against  your 
selves.  Alas  !  my  dear  children,  your  passions 
will  grow  with  your  years :  this  fund  of  cor 
ruption,  which  we  bear  within  us,  will  increase 
from  day  to  day :  perhaps  it  has  already  burst 
forth  in  you,  even  before  the  time  of  its  usual 
overflow  :  perhaps  the  grace  and  beauty  of  inno 
cence  have  already  perished  ;  perhaps  you  have 
already  stained  the  white  robe  of  modesty  and 
justice,  with  which  baptism  had  clothed  your 
soul.  If  the  beginning  has  been  so  corrupt, 
judge,  my  dear  children,  what  will  be  the  se 
quel?  if  the  spring  be  already  poisoned,  what 
will  be  the  whole  current  of  your  life?  if  your 
young  and  feeble  passions  are  already  stronger 
than  you,  what  will  become  of  you,  when  they 
shall  attain  their  highest  degree  of  strength? 

Resist  then,  my  dear  children,  in  the  begin 
ning;  this  should  be  the  effect  of  the  sacrament 
of  confirmation,  which  you  now  receive  from 
the  church :  habituate  yourselves  to  vanquish 
your  passions,  in  your  early  years ;  and  these 
first  efforts  will  draw  down  on  you,  abundant 
graces  from  heaven,  during  the  entire  course  of 


BEFORE   CONFIRMATION.  559 

your  lives.     God  will  be  more  careful  to  pre 
serve  you;   you  will  live  in  the  midst  of  the 
world  without  being  denied  by  its  corruption  ; 
you  will  resemble  the  three   Hebrew  children, 
whom  the  Lord  preserved  in   the  flaming  fur 
nace  at  Babylon,   because  their  first  years  had 
been  agreeable  in  his  sight.     All  depends,  my 
dear  children,  on  beginning  well:  if  your  youth 
be  wise  and  regular,  virtue  and  the  fear  of  God 
will  be  your  companions  in  every  stage  of  your 
life;  if  you  sow  im  benediction,  you  will  reap 
also   abundant  benedictions:    these  pure   first- 
fruits  of  your  life  will  sanctify  its   whole  te 
nor  ;  God  will  accept  them  as  the  happy  pledge 
of  your  salvation,  and  as  the  first  offering  of  a 
victim,  which  belongs  to  him,  and  which  your 
piety  consecrates  to  his  service.    But  should  you 
be  so  unfortunate  as   to  stray  from  your   first 
paths,  and  to   make  no   use   of  that  grace    of 
strength  and  courage,  which  you  are  going  to 
receive ;  you  will  stumble  at  every  step  which 
you  will  take  hereafter.     The  devil,  seeing  you 
despoiled  of  that  grace  of  sanctity,  which  you 
received  at  your  baptism,  and  of  that  grace  of 
fortitude  which  you  receive  to-day,  will  find  no 
thing  in  you  that  can  resist  his  attacks :    you 
will  become  the  sport  of  his  seductions  and  of 
your   own    weaknesses:    you   will   advance  in 


560 


TO    CHILDREN 


crime,  in  proportion  as  you  advance  in  years; 
you  had  begun  by  forgetting  God,  and  you  will 
end  by  despising  and  hating  his  religion.  He 
that  sovveth  in  the  flesh,  says  the  Apostle,  of  the 
flesh  also  shall  reap  corruption  :*  if  the  root  be 
vitiated,  the  shoots  which  spring  from  it,  can 
not  be  sound:  you  will  prepare  for  yourself, 
criminal  and  miserable  days,  a  troubled  life  of 
passion  and  remorse,  an  old  age  sad,  disconso 
late,  and  abandoned  by  heaven.  Happy,  my 
dear  children,  is  he,  who  carries  the  yoke  of 
the  Lord  from  his  childhood  :  God  will  pour 
out  his  blessings  upon  him ;  his  passions  check 
ed  in  their  beginning,  will  be  more  tame,  vir 
tue  will  cost  him  less,  his  inclinations  which 
were  early  bent  towards  his  duty,  will  afterwards 
take  that  direction,  of  themselves ;  his  days  will 
be  tranquil  and  happy,  his  life  virtuous,  his  old 
age  honourable  ;  and  his  death  corresponding  to 
his  life,  will  be  but  a  passage  to  a  blessed  im 
mortal  ity . — Amen. 

*  Galat.  c.  vi.  T.  8. 


MASS1LLON,    JEAN  B. 


BQ 

7Q77 

*A3 

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